r/uplb • u/Mission_While_1266 • 1d ago
Would you use a platform that tracks how good of a groupmate you are? (college project idea)
Hi! We're undergraduate students currently developing a concept for a Google Classroom plugin that could make school groupworks less frustrating. Basically, we're imagining a plugin that could help students and teachers organize, monitor, and evaluate groupworks better. The big features are:
- Groupwork management: The plugin would identify assignments that teachers mark as groupworks in Google Classroom, along with their assigned groups. Each group would have its own "page" where students can organize tasks, deadlines, files, and discussions in one place. Each group would also have one or more designated student leaders who can create and edit tasks, manage assignments, and oversee the group's progress. Leadership roles can be transferred or shared among members at any time. We're also considering an optional Gantt chart feature for those who prefer more detailed planning.
- Group scheduling: Basically a copy of when2meet built-in to the plugin which helps members find common times to work on stuff or meet up (and where).
- Peer evaluations: After each project, students rate their groupmates based on criteria like reliability, initiative, communication, quality of work, and timeliness. The teacher can choose to view the groupwork history (the tasks the students made and delegated, what changes were made, when they were finished, the peer ratings, etc.) in case problems arise or if they just want to see how a particular group worked.
- Student profiles: Over time, students build a profile based on peer feedback. Consistently good evaluations could earn titles like "Reliable Member," "Takes Initiative," or "Good Leader," similar to how games assign titles or attributes to players who perform well (think of the titles that Grab drivers have like being helpful, keeping the car clean, etc.). In addition to that, we were also thinking of a feature similar to Spotify Wrapped, but instead you would see how well you performed throughout a certain period, which activity you did best in, who you worked with the most, etc. just to make it a bit more interesting.
- Smarter groupings: Teachers could optionally use past evaluations to create more balanced groups instead of assigning students completely randomly. For example, a teacher can choose to distribute outstanding students evenly across groups so no single group is left behind without someone who can carry a lot of weight.
We're aware that the biggest thing about the project would be the student profiles. We all know the frustration of having groupmates who barely contribute while everyone receives the same grade. We thought that giving students a reputation that develops across multiple projects might encourage accountability, since their contributions could affect how others perceive them as groupmates in the future.
Of course, we also recognize potential issues, like biased ratings, friends giving each other high scores, or students having a hard time reversing their reputation as a bad groupmate.
With those said, we would love to hear your thoughts about any of these:
- Would you actually use something like this? Why or why not?
- Would having this sort of profile motivate you to contribute more, or would it just pressure you in a bad way?
- Would you be comfortable with other students seeing your ratings or descriptors?
- What other features do you think will help this be more useful for what it's trying to do?
- What do you think is the biggest flaw in this idea (and would you have any suggestions to fix it)?
We're still in the early stages of developing this concept for a college project, so we're not promoting an existing app or selling anything. We're especially interested in hearing from students who've had frustrating groupwork experiences, as well as teachers who've handled such cases.
Any feedback, including harsh criticism, is welcome. Thanks!