Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I received a 40 grade reduction in all course group evaluations as a result of peer-evaluations that was mandatory at the middle and ending of the semester. As well as, there was no indication/performance evaluation on the midterm peer-evaluations until after the end of semester evaluations, which was also released when the final mark was released. This also gives a student no indication how they are performing in a group matter and how to improve .At the request of the instructor, students do not have access to these evaluations and the description of the grade reduction does not adequately explain the cause of the reduction. I strongly do not believe my contribution and quality of work does not in any way warrant a 40 percent reduction. Also, I do not understand how an individual/groups' opinion who can also evaluate themselves in the peer evaluations can be used as an indicator of such a high impact in a students work.

The group work evaluations count for 45 of a students mark and a simple peer-evaluation which as stated earlier, a student can include their own evaluation of how well they believe they did and contributed; at the end of the evaluations, the student also must divide a total amount of marks between the group members, including themselves. Therefore, the peer-evaluation does not filter bias from the evaluations. Also, the effort in accommodating each group members availability, as for example, when I had class or other educational matters that would not allow me to meet at a given time, which I gave ample time to reschedule, I was told to catch up when I had time on my own. I do not have access to these conversations as the group leader closed the facebook messenger group chat before I received my peer-evaluation grade. After, given these instructions I proceeded to agree and did my own work through the online automatic updating software Google Docs and Google Slides which was mutually agreed upon as appropriate software.

I informed the instructor of my strong opinion, and was in essence told the only way to get an appropriate and accurate decision was to appeal the decision.