Overview
Peer review is a collaborative learning process designed to facilitate student engagement and improve the quality of student work through structured feedback. By involving students in the review process, peer review promotes critical thinking, communication skills, and a deeper understanding of course material. Through a multi-step approach, students provide constructive and anonymous feedback on each other's work and engage in critical reflection on how they might improve their own work.
Our current peer review tool is peerScholar, which is integrated with our VLE - Brightspace, making it easily accessible across all modules.
Key Features
- Integration with Virtual Learning Environment: Peer Scholar is integrated with our VLE - Brightspace, making it easily accessible across all modules.
- Three-Phase Process: Peer Scholar incorporates three main activities that students work through sequentially:
- Create Phase: Students submit their work individually or as a group, depending on the activity type.
- Assess Phase: Students assess their peers using pre-defined rubric items (assessments).
- Reflect Phase: Students view feedback from their peers and can reflect on it in various ways, such as responding to peer feedback or revising and resubmitting their work.
- Customisable Workflow: Instructors can set the dates for each phase and customise the workflow by enabling or disabling optional settings.
- Flexible Activity Types: Peer Scholar offers three types of activities:
- Classic Activity: Students submit work individually and give feedback to a random set of peers.
- Teamwork & Groupwork: Students work together as a group and submit a single submission. Peer feedback can be given collectively as a group or individually.
- Case Study: A flexible workflow where students are allocated to groups and receive different instructions based on their assigned case. Peer feedback can be given to peers working on the same or different cases.
- Group member evaluations: For group assessments, instructors can ask group members to assess the contributions of other group members by choosing the "Team member evaluations" option, which allows students to rate and comment on themselves and their peers.
When to use peerScholar
- Assignments: Implement peer review or self-assessment during assignments to provide students with early feedback and opportunities for improvement.
- Group Projects: Use Peer review to facilitate peer evaluation and accountability within group projects, ensuring equal participation and contribution.
- Presentations: Engage students in providing constructive feedback on their peers' presentations, helping them refine their public speaking and communication skills.
- Case Studies: Assign students to different cases and have them assess their peers' work on the same or different cases to encourage critical thinking and diverse perspectives.
- Iterative Assignments: Incorporate multiple rounds of peer review for iterative assignments, allowing students to learn from feedback and progressively enhance their work through a review loop where they reflect on their progress
Getting Started
- (opens in a new window)Getting started with peerScholar
- (opens in a new window)Connecting to peerScholar from Brightspace
- (opens in a new window)Grade transfer to Brightspace from peerScholar
- (opens in a new window)Webinar with Dwayne Pare from peerScholar
- (opens in a new window)peer assessment with peerScholar by Steve Joordans
- (opens in a new window)Creating peerScholar activities in Brightspace by Steve Joordan
- (opens in a new window)peerScholar website
- (opens in a new window)peerScholar online support
Further Support
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UCD IT Services
Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.Contact us via the UCD IT Support Hub: www.ucd.ie/ithelp