Center for Instructional Technology and Training
A peer review is a process in which students assess their fellow peers to provide and gain formative and/or summative feedback on their work. Peer review can be paired with a variety of assessments but is often used with draft writing assignments and presentations.
A peer review gives students the opportunity to interact with their peers in a constructive way, engage deeply with the course material, and be a key part of the evaluative process. When students review each other’s work, they must explain their reasoning and suggestions for improvement, and further develop their skill in offering and receiving constructive criticism.
The peer review process can also empower students in their own learning process because the focus of peer review is typically to improve a draft and progress toward a final (improved) submission of the assignment.
Automatically assigning peer reviews is an efficient way to involve students in the feedback process. You will want to create a rubric to guide student this feedback and set clear expectation for the evaluation of their peers. Providing an exemplar models an appropriate way to engage and interact with their peers.
Dr. Alyson Young & David Dillon, ANT4462-Culture and Medicine, Enrollment: 125+
In this course, students complete a peer review of each other’s concept diagrams on how biology, culture, and environment influence specific health outcomes, using VoiceThread. The instructor provides a detailed peer review template that includes step-by-step instructions and questions students must answer in their peer reviews. Including an assignment template helps to model the review process that students should learn to follow and gives them practice thinking critically about their work.
In addition to including detailed assignment instructions, a template, and a grading rubric, the assignment also provides key considerations for, and an overview of, effective feedback. Peer reviews are graded via Speedgrader and points are assigned using the rubric. These strategies make it possible to include a peer review in a course with over 135 students, but only 3 graders.
Designing Effective Peer and Self Assessment, CITT, University of Florida
Huisman, B., Saab, N., Broek, P. V., & Driel, J. V. (2018). The impact of formative peer feedback on higher education students’ academic writing: A Meta-Analysis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(6), 863-880. doi:10.1080/02602938.2018.1545896
Lundstrom, K., & Baker, W. (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer's own writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18(1), 30-43. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2008.06.002
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