MAPPING PLACES OF LOCAL INTEREST

Group Self-Assessment
Introduction:

This project is worth 20% of your final grade.

Evaluating your own work is a big responsibility which demands astute
reflection on your teams collaborative processes, and on your own
contribution to the project. The outcome of that collaborative processthe
final product, demands critical assessment of creativity, research, aesthetics,
accuracy, and purpose. You have all worked very hard this semester and I
trust you will handle this evaluation fairly and honestly.
This group self assessment is divided into three categories with different
weightings for each:
1. Team Collaborative Processes:
20%
2. Individual Contribution:
30%
3. Final Product:
50%
Team Collaborative Processes

This is an evaluation of how well you worked together as a team.

Collaborative work is complex, as you know, so think about your
organizational skills; your ability to delegate; your ability to stay on task with
the project; your drive to get things done.
In this category should be included a reflection of your communication skills
within your team; all the correspondence you conducted to get your project
underwayemails and phone calls to set up interviews, memos, consent
forms, surveys and questionnaires.
In this category you should reflect on your fieldwork to your place of interest
to conduct research and collect data.
All this requires considerable team effort
Individual Contribution

Only you and your team members know and appreciate how much you have
contributed to the success of this project. It is inevitable that some may have
contributed more than others. This section is where you democratically
decide between you how to evaluate that contribution.
Final Product

Whether you have produced a documentary, photo essay, website, publicity

package, blog, or student guide, there are some basic criteria that apply to
all these genres:
Creativity: How cool is your idea? Why?

Research:

Quality, relevance and accuracy of research material?

Aesthetics: Design considerations: your visual product should
have an organized and engaging layout, a logical sequencing of
information, appropriate font style/size, a consistent colour
palette, original photographs/film footage, quality non-pixilated
images, well considered camera angles etc.
Accuracy:
You are engaged in public discourse, therefore we
have a Zero Tolerance Policy for spelling and grammar errors. If
you have produced a websitemake sure all the links work. If
you have produced a filmmake sure the elements are in synch.
Purpose:
How well does your product satisfy the needs of its
intended audience?

Instructions:

Evaluation takes time. You must conduct the assessment together.

Collaborate your responses onto one document. Project leader to send me a
copy via Edmodo. Note: Each team member MUST get a copy of the
completed evaluation.
Each section is evaluated on a scale of 110 (1=lowest & 10=highest).
Select a numerical value and indicate your choice by bolding the number in
red. Example:
Organizational
Skills:
1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Tally the numbers and calculate the results for section 1 & 3 (I will work out
the percentages).
Write a brief reflection for each section that addresses your teams overall
evaluation and how your team feels about their abilities in these areas.

THE EVALUATION
Team Name: New Paltz, New Me
Title of Project: Healthy Lifestyles in New Paltz
Final Product: Newsletter
Team Members: Christine Carter-Huffman (Group Organizer),
Marlana Krulish (Designer), Meaghan McAllister (Communication
Manager) & Brenna OBrien (Editor)

1. Team Collaborative Processes:

Organizational
Skills:
1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Communication
Skills:

Fieldwork:

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10
24 3 = 8

Reflection:

Overall, we did a good job assigning jobs for everyone and distributing the
work evenly. However, we did lack with our fieldwork. We had a difficult time
defining the central theme for our project when we hit an obstacle with our
fieldwork, which led us to change our theme for the project. At the beginning of
creating our project, we did some fieldwork but we needed to go out and find more
information to use. Later on we did interview some people, which helped contribute
a lot to our project. This is why we feel our fieldwork deserves a 7. On the other
hand, our organization was very good. We communicated and found out specific
times to get together and work on our project. Also, when we couldnt get together
we would text each other and figure out the work that each of us needed to
accomplish. This goes along with our communication skills, we all contributed to our
projects ideas and there wasn't one person who wasn't contributing.

2. Individual Contribution:
Evaluate each member of the team. Write their name and leadership role in the space
provided and include a brief reflection of their performance. Note: individual contribution
grades will be added separately on to sections 1 & 3.
Name: Meaghan McAllister
9----10

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----

Reflection:
Meaghan made a fulfilling contribution. She efficiently worked on the design
on the powerpoint presentation. She focused heavily on slides that would be
pleasing to the viewer's eye. Where Meaghan struggled was her writing
organization. She had a hard time with organizing her thoughts and putting
them onto paper. Overall, her participation and creative ideas helped the
project as a whole.
Name: Brenna OBrien
1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Reflection: Brenna was a valuable asset to this team because she was the
connection between our group and our place of interest. She had many
conversations with Petra, the owner of The Hungry Ghost, and was able to
set up meeting dates for us to visit and interview Petra. Brenna also

conducted interviews from vegan and non-vegan persons which aided in our
understanding of veganism in New Paltz. She retrieved consent from Petra
and our interviewees. She struggled to meet with the group at times because
of athletics and other school work. She also procrastinated her portion of the
newsletter, but once completed is was an eloquent addition. She also was
very helpful in the final edits of the project. Overall she contributed well to
this project.
Name: Christine Carter-Huffman
9----10

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----

Reflection: Christine was efficient organizing the group and prompting people
to figure out what we needed to do for our project. She mostly focused on
the overall layout of the project, along with Brenna, and came up with new
ideas for our projects theme. She also took the time to help revise all the
parts of the project, so that it will be an accurate piece. Christine could have
helped a little bit more with the PowerPoint design, but later on she did
contribute organizing the slides and coming up with ideas.
Name: Marlana Krulish
1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Reflection: Marlana works well with others in groups. She enjoyed the
research aspect to this project, since she is a new vegetarian and wants to
transition to veganism one day. Marlanas strength was her previous
knowledge of this topic. This is because her siblings are vegan and
vegetarian, and she knew a lot of information about those different lifestyles.
Her weakness was incorporating all her important information into the slide
show. Because she didn't want the presentation to be too lengthy, she
omitted some of her research information that she gathered. Overall,
Marlana was a great asset to the group and this project.
3. Final Product
Creativity:

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Research:

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Aesthetics: 1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10
Accuracy:

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10

Purpose:

1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10
42 5 = 8.4

Reflection:

The end product of our project really excelled in the aesthetics sense.
We made it a priority to put in the time needed to make the project pleasing
and interesting to look at. Our research was not that well organized, but we
did have a lot of information to grab from and use in our sections of the
Newsletter. Our accuracy was consistent throughout the project. We used
relevant information from primary sources which became a notable
component to our project. We also spent a lot of time revising our project, as
well. The purpose of our project was a little confusing at first as we struggled
to define our point of concentration. This lead to debate over what we
wanted to accomplish given our abundance of intriguing information. Looking
at the final product, we could still benefit from more clearly stating our
objectives. As far as creativity, it was also a slow start. As we gained more
information and figured out our projects layout, what began as a canned
project expanded into an expressive production. While finding freedom in the
creative aspect of the project, we began to figure out different sections of our
project. We tried to make our project a little more fun, instead of just laying
out the information and making it an unoriginal piece.

Final comments on anything you think I should know about your

project, such as technical difficulties, problems with research
participants etc: I will take these comments into consideration in
the final tally.

For us, we had difficulty connecting our place of interest to the

main point of this project. This is because we went from the ghost
aspect of New Paltz to the vegan side of it. Once we veered toward
the vegan aspect of the Hungry Ghost, this quickly branched off into
many other vegan destinations of New Paltz. These vegan
restaurants were extremely helpful for identifying the vegan roots
of New Paltz. Unfortunately, while it added to our overall concept, it
also detracted from our focus on the Hungry Ghost Guest Bed and
Breakfast.