Online peer-assessment tools, like Peerceptiv, reallocate the instructor’s time so they can focus on using the results of an assignment to inform their instruction rather than spending hours hand-grading student work. The grades generated by peer reviewing are proven to be as valid and reliable as grades by one expert assessor, so including evidence-based assignments that engage students in higher-order thinking is now possible for any size class.
Most importantly, including learners in the process of assessment will improve outcomes, develop critical analysis, and build essential soft skills. When learners are placed into the role of assessor, they internalize the criteria on which their work will be evaluated and deeply engage with the content they are learning.
Here are 7 creative ways to use peer-assessment in your courses.
The tech industry values and requires collaboration among designers, software engineers, customers, etc. Using peer-assessment to train for this type of collaboration is a natural fit. Computer Science professors are using Peerceptiv to have students submit code files that their peers then run and review. This prepares students for the code peer-review that many software engineering companies have built into their product development workflow. Additionally, the back-evaluation step is especially helpful for these students in developing soft skills because in this step they provide feedback to the reviewer about the quality and helpfulness of their review. This fosters the type of communication that employers desire in the modern workforce.
Whether online or on campus, group projects engage students in the learning process in many beneficial ways. Creating an iterative process where groups receive feedback from peers outside of their group will help students improve their project before final submission. As students review other projects, they will benefit from seeing how other groups are approaching the assignment.
This is a modern twist on an age-old practice and a great way to engage online students. Pair students off and assign them opposite sides of any topic you wish for them to explore in more depth. Once they prepare their arguments, have them connect via video chat and record the session. Then, they upload the video to Peerceptiv for assessment by others in the course.
The frequency of lab reports lends itself well to peer-assessment. Rather than submitting to an instructor or TA for feedback, leverage the other students in the course. By implementing peer review, students will become familiar with the format and techniques required at a much faster pace as they learn from other lab reports by critically analyzing them.
Often, when discussing prior readings in class or on a bulletin board, particular students will dominate the session leaving little room for others to engage. With an incentivized peer-assessment process, all students in the course will be involved in a dialogue around the assigned text. They will also receive credit for these interactions, which inspires more comments of a higher quality.
Fostering student creativity is a great way to get students excited about your course content. Student produced podcasts are becoming a popular way to assess learning. Once they are created, the audio file can be submitted for online peer-assessment. Now other students learn from their peers’ podcasts while also providing evaluations and feedback.
Team Member Evaluation
Peerceptiv includes a feature that guides students through a process of evaluating their group members’ contributions to a project with qualitative and quantitative prompts. When group member expectations are clear and reinforced with evaluation, students’ collaboration will surely improve.
If you would like to discuss these or other ideas you have for including peer-assessment in your course or program, please reach out for a consultation at email@example.com.