A review of peer assessment tools

The benefits of peer assessment Peer assessment is a powerful teaching technique that provides benefits to learners, including –improved attainment –increased self-esteem and confidence –increased engagement with learning, especially goal setting, clarifying objectives, taking responsibility for learning

The purpose of this review This review explored common features and differences between three kinds of online peer assessment tools reported in research

The kind of tools identified in the review The online tools the researcher reviewed included –generic tools that offered support in a variety of contexts –tools that offered specific support in a particular area such as written reports –purpose-built tools for a specific course

Generic tools to aid peer assessment Features included –reviewers and authors communicated anonymously –students revised their work before final submission –students graded the reviews to show how helpful they were –the teacher defined criteria by which assignments were scored –students assessed themselves and compared their own evaluation with that of others –students reviewed good and bad examples taken from the group

Tools offering specific support Features enabled students to –assess essays anonymously –use and add to a predefined list of formative comments –summatively assess essays by giving a numeric value for fixed criteria such as readability –give a grade (e.g. 1-10) and write a constructive comment –modify their work in the light of the comments

Purpose–built tools Features included –students developing their own assessment criteria collaboratively –assignments allocated to students to review anonymously –a combination of multiple choice and free response questions

Elements common to many of the tools Anonymity (to ensure marking is fair) Random allocation of documents to review The use of exemplars to help learners identify what is good or bad in an assignment Either specific marking of fixed criteria or a general rating The facility to provide feedback to the reviewer about the quality of their reviews

Take action When using peer assessment (with or without a computer tool) could you consider –giving learners the opportunity to contribute to the marking criteria? –examining with learners the similarities and differences between the criteria they propose and the exam criteria? –giving learners good and bad exemplars to assess?

How was the information gathered? The researcher –mined specific research databases and journals using the keywords ‘peer assessment’ OR ‘peer review’ OR ‘peer evaluation’ –only included studies if the tools had been used in the classroom

Study reference Luxton-Reilly, A (2009). ‘A systematic review of tools that support peer assessment’. Computer Science Education, 19 (4) pp.209 – 232