Design of a simple rubric to peer-evaluate the teamwork skills of engineering students

Abstract

Effectively working in an engineering workplace requires strong teamwork skills, yet the existing literature within various disciplines reveals discrepancies in evaluating these skills. This complicates the design of a generic teamwork peer evaluation tool for engineering students. This study aims to address this gap by introducing the DRIVE teamwork rubric, a simple, valid, and reliable tool designed to assess fundamental teamwork skills in engineering students. Informed by a comprehensive literature review and experiential learning theory, the rubric incorporates five dimensions, encapsulating crucial attributes for successful teamwork. The integration of these dimensions into the rubric aims to streamline the peer evaluation process and improves student awareness about fundamental teamwork skills. Initial implementation data analysis, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, alongside McDonald's Omega, substantiate the rubric's reliability and validity. A comparison between Teaching Assistants’ (TAs’) and peer evaluations affirms students’ ability to assess peers on par with TAs, underscoring the rubric's simplicity and effectiveness.