Introduction
In this article we'll walk you through how to set up Group Member Evaluation from the perspective of a teacher.
If you'd like more information on how this tool works, check out these articles:
Group Member Evaluation: For Teachers (Active Assignment)
Group Member Evaluation: For Students
Group Member Evaluation: Overview
Tool In Action
How this article is structured
Setting up an activity now follows three stages, shown in the bar at the top of the activity whenever you're in edit mode:
Build activity — get an overview of your activity and add or remove steps.
Edit steps — configure each step one at a time (instructions, feedback criteria, how students evaluate each other, anonymity, and visibility).
Setup activity — set what applies to the whole activity: deadlines, grade weighting, and group settings.
This article follows that same order. Everything below describes what you can configure before the activity is published — students cannot access the activity at this stage. You can still edit some settings after publishing; however, once students start making progress, certain options lock to protect their work and data. Wherever that applies, we'll note it.
Note: When you open a published activity, you'll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to setup, click Edit in the upper-left corner. See the Active Assignment article.
Accessibility
We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners. To read more, see Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.
Stage 1 — Build activity
This is your starting point. Here you see every step in the activity in order and can shape the activity before configuring the details.
A default Group Member Evaluation activity contains:
Instructions (Read instructions)
Give feedback (Give feedback to yourself and group members)
Read received feedback
Adding steps. Use the learning-steps panel to add optional steps such as Participation Grading, Reflections, Feedback-on-Feedback, or a Non-FeedbackFruits step. Click a step to add it, or drag it into the activity.
When your steps are in place, move to Edit steps to configure each one.
Stage 2 — Edit steps
Here you set up the activity step by step. Each step shows its own settings and a Student preview so you can see what learners will see. Collaboration settings live on the feedback step, so it's clear what each choice applies to.
Step 1: Instructions
Write the instructions students see when they open the activity. Type directly into the instructions field; the student preview updates alongside.
Step 2: Give feedback
Set how students evaluate one another and what guides them. In Group Member Evaluation, evaluation happens within the group — each student assesses the other members of their own group (and, optionally, themselves).
Students give feedback as — An individual or A group. This is the evaluator half of collaboration.
Students give feedback to — Other students or Groups. This is the target half of collaboration.
Students can give feedback to — choose the pool evaluators are drawn from, e.g. anyone in the activity or only students within their group. For Group Member Evaluation, keeping this within the group is the typical setup. Combined with the two choices above, this produces the setups described in the evaluation options reference.
Number of peers to review — set how many peers/groups each student evaluates (1+), or choose All peers. Reviewing multiple peers gives students a broader view and gives each student more nuanced feedback on their own contribution. (Be mindful of workload when choosing All.)
Criteria — the criteria that guide students as they give feedback. Click Edit to add, edit, or delete criteria. See How to set up feedback criteria.
How are students allocated to reviews — set the allocation method (e.g. Automatically one by one). See allocation methods below.
When do students see their feedback — set visibility to Immediately, after the release date, a certain date, or Never (release manually).
Advanced settings (Give feedback):
Self-assessment — students start their review work by reviewing themselves before reviewing peers.
Automatic outlier detection — lets Analytics detect outliers in group ratings and identify students of interest. Enabling it opens a modal that lists the settings it requires; the tool can apply them for you (see below).
AI coach — students receive AI-powered, real-time feedback to improve their peer/self reviews.
Feedback writing tips — students are randomly shown tips while reviewing, to help them write higher-quality feedback.
Review checklist — a checklist shown while a student gives feedback, to help them reflect on how they framed it.
Optional instructions for this step — add specific guidance (e.g. desired tone, what to focus on).
About automatic outlier detection. To switch it on, the following settings are required and the modal will offer to apply them: Students give feedback to → only students within their group, Self-assessment → enabled, Number of peers to review → at least 4, and Feedback criteria → at least 1 rubric. Click Apply changes and enable to turn it on.
Reviewer anonymity is set per step: when enabled, reviewers are anonymous, though reviewers still see the name of the peer they're evaluating, and teachers can always see the reviewer. See Good to know: Anonymity.
About the review deadline. The deadline itself is set later, in Setup activity → Deadlines. A behaviour worth knowing here: once the review deadline passes, reviewers can no longer view or edit their reviews; leave it blank to allow this indefinitely. If a closing date is set, you can grant individual students an extension and assign them a new deadline of your choosing.
Step 3: Read received feedback
Toggle Feedback on feedback so students rate the reviews they received on a usefulness scale of 1 to 10. The deadline for this step is set in Setup activity → Deadlines. Keep in mind that if a deadline was set on the previous step, this step only becomes available once that deadline has passed.
Step 4: Reflection (optional)
If you added a Reflections step in Build activity, configure it here: set the required reflection length (1–5,000 words) and enable the Reflection Coach (AI-powered, real-time guidance) under the step's settings. To remove the step, delete it from Build activity.
Stage 3 — Setup activity
The final stage gathers the settings that apply to the whole activity — the ones you'll most often revisit. On the left you keep the step overview; on the right you set activity-wide options.
- Activity settings — title, a teacher-only description, and the Group activity setting.
Deadlines
Enable Steps have end dates, then set an end date per step in one place — the give-feedback deadline and the read-received-feedback deadline both live here. Leaving a deadline blank keeps that step open indefinitely.
Grade weighting
Enable Steps have grade weighting to assign a weight to each step (e.g. Has completed giving feedback, Has written the minimum number of review comments, Ratings received from self-assessment, Average ratings received from reviewers, Has read all received feedback). Weights must total 100% — the panel shows a running Total grade weighting.
Additional grading options in Advanced settings:
Grade type — publish the grade as a Percentage or Pass/fail.
Require participation to receive a grade — if enabled, only students who open the learning activity receive a grade.
Schedule grade publish — automatically publish grades at a selected date, or auto-publish after completing graded steps (publishes a student's overall grade once they complete all graded steps).
Group Contribution Grading — for how this works, see Group Member Evaluation | Group Contribution Grading | Group Contribution Factor.
For more on the configurable grading module, see this article.
Groups
Because Group Member Evaluation is inherently a group activity, group selection matters: choose the group set and which groups participate here via the Group activity setting. For configuring groups inside Blackboard, Brightspace, or Canvas, see this article; if you can't sync groups from your LMS or you're using the platform directly, see this article.
Reminder: collaboration options (how students give feedback and to whom) must be set before students participate. Once a student makes progress, those configurations can't be changed.
When everything looks right, Save and publish.
Evaluation options reference
Student collaboration in Group Member Evaluation is configured in Step 2: Give feedback through two settings:
- How students are evaluated
- How students evaluate
Together, these settings determine how students give and receive feedback in the activity.
Configure them before students begin participating. Once a student has made progress, these settings can no longer be changed.
| How students are evaluated | Available options for how students evaluate |
|---|---|
| Individually | Individually · Within groups · Outside of their group |
| As a group | As a group · Individually, with the same work assigned to each group member |
Important: Some options depend on how students are evaluated.
- When students are evaluated individually, As a group and Individually, with the same work assigned to each group member are unavailable.
- When students are evaluated as a group, Within groups and Outside of their group are unavailable.
| # | Combination | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluated individually, evaluate individually | Students are each assigned to evaluate anyone individually. |
| 2 | Evaluated individually, evaluate within groups | Each student is individually assigned someone within their own group to evaluate. (Disabled if "as a group" is chosen for how students are evaluated.) |
| 3 | Evaluated individually, evaluate outside their group | Each student is individually assigned someone not in their group. (Disabled if "as a group" is chosen.) |
| 4 | Evaluated as a group, evaluate as a group | A group is assigned to review another group; after the group agrees, any member can submit the review on the group's behalf. (Disabled if "individually" is chosen.) |
| 5 | Evaluated as a group, evaluate individually (same work per group member) | Each member of a group is assigned to review the same group, and reviews are made individually. (Disabled if "individually" is chosen.) |
Note on the redesigned controls
In the redesigned interface, these collaboration choices are presented through three controls:
- Students give feedback as: an individual or a group
- Students give feedback to: other students or groups
- Students can give feedback to: anyone in the activity or only students within their group
These controls produce the same five collaboration combinations described above.
Note: The combinations are carried over from the current Help Centre article. The final labels and wording in the redesigned interface are still being confirmed and may change before release.
Allocation methods
By setting How are students allocated to reviews, you choose how peers are assigned:
- Automatically — one by one: students are assigned reviews one at a time; the next review appears after they start the first. This is the default and recommended method.
- Automatically — all at once: available only when the required number of reviews is higher than 1. Students see all their assigned peers at once. Less flexible — if a student completes only one review, the rest can no longer be reassigned.
- Manually: you assign all allocations yourself.
- Students choose to review: students select the peer or group they want to review.
If you set the number of peers to All, students review everyone in their group — be mindful of student workload with this setting.
Good to know: Anonymity
If anonymity is enabled, students work under a pseudonym, but the teacher can always see the real student name.
What I know vs. what I don't (open questions for review)
Certain (confirmed by the new screenshots):
The 3-stage backbone (01. Build activity → 02. Edit steps → 03. Set up activity) and the default step list: Instructions → Give feedback → Read received feedback, with Participation Grading, Reflections, Feedback-on-Feedback, Non-FeedbackFruits Step as optional add-ons in the Learning steps panel.
The Give feedback step's primary controls exist as written: Students give feedback as (An individual / A group), Students give feedback to (Other students / Groups), Students can give feedback to (To anyone in the activity), Number of peers to review (1+ / All peers), Criteria, How are students allocated to reviews (Automatically one by one), When do students see their feedback (Immediately).
Give feedback Advanced settings: Self-assessment, Automatic outlier detection, AI coach, Feedback writing tips, Review checklist, Optional instructions.
The outlier-detection modal requirements: within-group evaluation, self-assessment enabled, ≥4 peers, ≥1 rubric.
Read received feedback carries the Feedback on feedback toggle (rate 1–10).
Setup activity exposes Deadlines (Steps have end dates), Grade weighting (Steps have grade weighting; total 100%), and a grading Advanced panel with Grade type (Percentage / Pass-fail), Require participation to receive a grade, Schedule grade publish / Auto-publish after completing graded steps, and Group activity.
Inferred / relocated (not shown verbatim in a single screenshot, carried from the old article):
The five evaluation combinations and their disable-rules come from the current article's Collaboration Options block; the new UI simplifies these into the "give feedback as / to" controls, so the mapping between old combination names and new labels is my inference.
The Groups section in Setup activity: the screenshots show a Group activity setting/toggle but not an explicit group-set picker with the LMS sync links. I relocated the old article's group-configuration links here on the reasoning (and per tool guidance) that group participation is activity-wide. Confirm exactly where the group set is chosen in the new design.
Group Contribution Grading placement: shown in the old article under Grading; I placed it in Setup activity → Grade weighting. Not independently visible in the grading screenshot's cropped copy — confirm the toggle still lives there.
Open questions:
Combinations table — keep or drop? The old article documents five distinct evaluation configurations, so per the authoring kit a combinations table applies and I included one. But the new screenshots show a simplified "give feedback as / give feedback to / pool" model that may collapse some of these. Confirm whether all five still exist in the new design, or whether the table should be reduced to the two-control explanation only.
WIP microcopy. Several labels read as work-in-progress or are OCR-ambiguous in the screenshots (e.g. "Al coach" = AI coach; "Set up activity" vs. "Setup activity"; step title "Give feedback to yourself and group members" vs. short label "Give feedback to peers"). Worth a final wording pass before publish.
Reflection deadline & Reflection Coach location. Old article placed the Reflection Coach under a "Guiding Students" section; the new design likely uses per-step Advanced settings. Confirm.
Deadline behaviour split. I kept the explanation of review-edit lockout and extensions on the Give feedback step but moved the deadline field to Setup activity. Flag if you'd rather move the whole explanation to Setup activity.