Random allocation doesn't always allocate the specified number of assignments

Random allocation doesn't always allocate the specified number of assignments

by Jodi L -
Number of replies: 3

Hello,

We're using workshop (Moodle 2.3) for peer review with a class of 21 groups. The workshop is set to randomly distribute two assignments per submission (so, each person who participates should get two assignments). Students do not review their own assignments.

We've run the peer review this way three separate times (three separate workshop instances) and each time there are three groups that have one student with three assignments to review and another student with only one assignment to review. Every other student in those groups has two assignments (as per the settings), and the other groups are fine. The groups affected are not the same each workshop. (The groups have not changed between workshop instances.)

I can go in after the allocation and correct this manually, but is there a known cause for this/something I can do to prevent this?

Thanks

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In reply to Jodi L

Re: Random allocation doesn't always allocate the specified number of assignments

by Leon Huang -

Hi Jodi You may want to use 2 per reviewer rather than 2 per submission. Per submission will be limited by the pool of assignment, but the per reviewer will not need to consider how many in the pool.

 

Hope this helps.

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In reply to Jodi L

Re: Random allocation doesn't always allocate the specified number of assignments

by David Mudrák -
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Hi Jodi

Firstly, you have decide what is more important for you - to have fixed number of assessments per submission or fixed number of assessment per reviewer. The allocator tries hard to produce balanced results but that is not always possible. As Leon suggests, if it is more important for you to have the same amount of work for each student, you may wish to prefer fixed number per reviewer (but then, some submissions may get assessed three times and some just once, for example). It really depends on whether you prefer equal workload for your students or equal amount of feedback per submission.

Also note that the group mode affects this. In Visible groups mode, the allocator tries to pick reviewers from as many groups as possible. And that is probably why you get these results if the number of members are not equal across groups. In Separate groups mode, reviewers are picked from the user's own group only.

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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Random allocation doesn't always allocate the specified number of assignments

by Jodi L -

Thanks, Leon and David.

We (I'm working with another instructor) went with per submission so that the work would be distributed evenly amongst those in a group who submitted a paper to review (so a student who did not submit a paper would not be reviewing any papers). The groups (each group represents a tutorial of about 16 or 17 students; the course is set up in forced separate group mode) are separate to make it easier for the teaching assistants to assign participation marks for the reviews.

It's not a problem for a reviewer to get more than two reviews back on an assignment, but it would be a problem for a reviewer to only have one review to do. (Each reviewer submitted only one assignment.)

It sounds like everything is working as it should, then. By the way, this is our first term using Workshop - it's a great feature.

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