A York University graduate has created a website where students can anonymously rate fellow students based on their group work performance.
Stefano Cerone’s website “Tworp.com,” short for “Team Work Problems,” rates students on a five star system under the categories of teamwork, competence, dependability, work ethic, and communication skills, leaving room for comments.
Similar to the idea of RateMyProf, the website is meant to allow students to avoid previously unhelpful group members. Cerone has invested roughly $12,000 dollars in his project.
The website is meant to “facilitate constructive feedback between students,” Cerone said in an email. “This is also to some degree a motivator to students.”
He said the site was created to “allow students to be able to search the competencies of their classmates to be able to make a team with a diverse skill set.”
While the site does not yet have a Carleton University chapter, students have mixed feelings about the website.
“I think it’s a clever idea. No one wants to get stuck in a group with slackers,” said Donna Monbourquette, a third-year psychology student at Carleton, who said she has had her fair share of experiences with group work. However, she said she also sees the negative aspects of such a system, pointing out that some students “don’t learn in the same way that other group members do.”
Kassandra Poirier, a second-year law student at Carleton, said she feels the website could be used for alternative purposes.
“Unfortunately, people say things out of anger and frustration. I feel like the website would be used to vent, and it could be damaging to someone’s reputation,” said Poirier. “It’s good in theory, but people are way too petty.”
Meaghan Leduc, a third-year religion student at Carleton, said she sees positive aspects to the system. As someone with a recent negative experience involving group work, she said she thinks such a tool would make things easier.
In cases where you choose your own partner, Leduc said she thinks it would allow people to pair up with others who have “a similar working style.”
“Abuse of the site is definitely one of our primary concerns,” Cerone said. “Like any rating and review site . . . there will be users who abuse the site and use it for venting.”
Cerone said the site currently has an option for students to flag offensive or unhelpful reviews. In addition, the Tworp team monitors posts internally.
“We understand that these terms are subjective,” Cerone said. “We are going to allow the feedback of users to shape the definitions of offensive, off-topic, and non-constructive comments.”
