Peer Feedback and Assessment Systems

The Educational Challenge

For years school supply lists have been filled with all different items, but one item that is missing from many lists today is a red pen. For a long time, a simple, red pen was on the school supply list for grading purposes. Whether this was grading one’s work or that of their neighbor, the red pen was the tool of choice. The act of swapping papers with the student sitting next to you or at your table is still very common today. Sometimes we are grading one another’s spelling tests as the teacher reads the correct spellings aloud at the front of the room or other times it is more in depth and students are reading one another’s research papers looking for spelling and grammatical errors. This style of peer review left and still leaves much to be desired. The idea of peer feedback has transitioned more from peer grading to this idea of “feedback.” The paradigm of who is allowed to give feedback has shifted. The model has transitioned from teacher to student feedback to peer to peer feedback between students. Students are now encouraged to review other students’ work with a critical eye and give them back meaningful feedback. The introduction of technology has had a profound effect on this experience that will be explored in this work.

Exploring the Educational Technology

Peer feedback and assessment systems are products that create a platform in which students can collaborate in order to give one another feedback or make critiques. These systems are the 21st century version of swapping papers with the student next to you to make comments on, but extends way beyond just scoring someone else’s work. This form of feedback and assessment is on a much greater scale and allows students to view a variety of work to deepen their learning experience. These types of systems also provoke students to use critical thinking skills when evaluating and assessing the work of others. “Peer assessment is uniquely valuable because students may accept criticisms of their work from one another that they would not take seriously if the remarks were offered by a teacher. Peer work is also valuable because the interchange will be in language that students themselves naturally use and because students learn by taking the roles of teachers and examiners of others.” (Black et al, 2004). While this type of feedback may sound like it is geared for intermediate students and above, check out the link to the video below that shows how a 1st grade class is using an app on their ipads to do peer review with grammar. 1st Grade Class Video

There are different systems available today, but the essence of these different products are similar. The teacher/instructor plays a vital role in being the driving force behind these systems. An example of this would be a teacher creating an assignment by explaining it in class or possibly posting it online using the classroom learning management system. Once students have completed their assignment and reviewed their work according to the rubric the teacher has shared, students can to evaluate the work of one peer or multiple peers depending on the instructions provided by the teacher. These systems allow teachers to grade students then not only on how they assessed their work, but based on the feedback they were able to give their peers as well as what they did with the feedback they received from their peers.

The technical aspects of these systems vary depending on the types of assignments students are working on. While the interfaces differ in appearance, the idea of an open and collaborative space is constant. Some peer feedback and assessment systems are incorporated into learning management systems and are built tools that allow students to view all of their classmates work or just a select group. One of the major advantages to these systems being online based is that students can access them both at school or remotely. Other systems are best used in a full group setting and act more as an open forum. See Examples of these different types of products being used today under Technology in Practice Today.

The Underlying Learning Theory

The learning theory behind peer feedback and assessment extends back to the idea that learning is a collaborative responsibility. John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and Benjamin Bloom all stressed that students learn better when work is student focused and done through collaborative work activities (2009). The act of using technology to assess peers as well as give and receive feedback is collaborative in its very nature. Gregory, Cameron, and Davies (2000) claim, “when students are involved in self-assessment, they provide themselves with regular and descriptive feedback to guide their learning” (p. 10). Self- assessment allows students to recognize their strengths and areas for improvement and encourages involvement with the curriculum. They also learn how to use teacher feedback, constructive criticism from other students, and self-assessment to identify what they need to work on and to set goals for future learning. Students can identify personal strengths and areas for improvement before handing in their work. They also learn how to interact and offer descriptive feedback to classmates. Self-assessment thus becomes an essential aspect to learning, and struggling students benefit the most from this AFL practice (Black, 2004).

The Technology in Practice Today

There are loads of technology applications that have come out in recent years that enable students to participate in peer feedback and assessments. Watch this 4 minute video to see how an instructor uses the peer feedback feature in Canvas with his students. This article gives quite a nice insight into a student’s perspective of using peer assessment and feedback through Coursera. Look at the table below to see some different tools and how they are being used in classrooms today.

Tool	Technology/Functional Aspects
TEAMMATES	TEAMMATES began in 2010 and is now hosted on the Google App Engine. This online system allows both instructors and students to participate in peer evaluations and feedback. It boasts many features including flexible feedback paths including peer to peer(s) or instructor to peer, visibility settings to control what others can and cannot see, reports and statistics, and downloadable data that the teacher can use to see all collected responses. This system has received high praise from faculty around the world at the university level.	The images above displays collaborative work and feedback between peers. image citation: https://teammatesv4.appspot.com/index.html
Moodle	Moodle 2 has new additions to it that have allowed for more peer feedback and assessment. There is a new module called Workshop. According to Sean Gabriel McClelland, a a Learning Technologies Specialist in the UCSF Library, “here are the Cliff’s notes of how this works, The instructor builds the activity. Students complete and submit their assignment. Instructor assesses student submissions. Students assess their classmate’s submissions. Students receive two grades in the grade book. a.One score for their submission.b.One score for their assessment of their classmates’ submissions.	This 18 minute video explains using the "Workshop" module for peer assessment. image citation: docs.moodle.org
Google Drive/Docs	Through Google Drive/Docs, students are able to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and websites that can all be shared with their teacher and peers. By giving editing rights to the teacher and peers, students can assess one another and give feedback in real-time. Comments appear on students documents enabling them to make revisions. Teachers are able to see all revisions and check the revision history to see who contributed what to each document created. This is something that can be used from elementary education all the way up through higher learning establishments.	Google Drive Watch this video to see how teachers are using Google Docs to increase collaboration and peer to peer feedback.
AnswerGarden	AnswerGarden is a real-time feedback tool that can be used in many different ways, especially in the classroom. AnswerGarden allows students or teachers to create a new page and pose a question. This allows other students or the teacher to give instant feedback or ask further questions regarding information presented. This tool is free and does not require a login which makes it very appealing to educators.	image citation: answergarden.ch

Critical Reflection:

Strengths of online peer feedback and assessment systems:

• peer review can take place anytime, anywhere providing the student has a device and access to internet
  
• students are creating works for other students, not just the teacher
  
• some students feel more comfortable reviewing others’ work anonymously
  
• students can see other examples of peers’ works, which can enhance their own product
  
• students are working in collaborative environment and gaining communication skills
  
• students are allowed to review and edit their work and peers' work before it is submitted for a final grade
  

Weaknesses of online peer feedback and assessment systems:

• students may assess or give feedback differently to other students based on things like friendship and loyalty
  
• availability of these systems in the homes of all students as not every student has access to the technology needed in order to use these systems outside of school
  
• anonymity of reviewers can lead to lack of clarification
  
• all students may not put forth the same effort
  

Conclusion

Peer feedback systems have changed the way that students and teachers interact. It has also taken reviewing others' work to an entirely new level. Students are now able to delve deeper into their work and the work of their peers. The teacher's role of being the sole assessor and giver of feedback can now transition to facilitator of student to student feedback and assessment. The use of peer feedback and assessment systems increases the ability for students to communicate and collaborate. I have used Google Docs extensively with my students and it has changed the way students think about their work in a very positive way. Students now know that their work will be looked at and reviewed by multiple members of the classroom that they will share their doc with. Perhaps my favorite part of using this as a peer feedback system is that it instills a sense of ownership and pride in students' work. While I have primarily used Google, there are a host of different products available for educators that I encourage everyone to try out and use with their students at every level of education.

References

About AnswerGarden. (2014). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from Answer Garden website:

http://answergarden.ch/

Black, P. (2004). The nature and value of formative assessment for learning. Unpublished manuscript, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ.

Black,P., Harrison,C, Lee,C,Marshall, Band Wiliam D (2004). ‘Working Inside the

Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom’. Phi Delta Kappan, Sept 2004 v86 i1p8

Dewey, J. (2009). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy

of education. New York: Cosimo Classics.

Google For Education. (2014). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from Google website:

http://www.google.com/edu/training/tools/drive/level2.html

McClelland, S. G. (2014, February 4). New to Moodle 2 – Peer Assessments! Retrieved September 5, 2014, from UCSF Library website:

https://blogs.library.ucsf.edu/convergence/2013/02/04/

new-to-moodle-2-peer-assessments/

McLoughlin, C. (2010). Personalised and self regulated learning in the Web 2.0 era: International exemplars of innovative pedagogy using social software. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 28-43. Retrieved from:

http://ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/mcloughlin.html

Peer Assessment. (2014). Retrieved September 6, 2014, from Learning Enhancement website:

http://www.derby.ac.uk/lei/tel/assessing-students/peer-assessment

Peer Grading: A Student Perspective in an Open and Online Course. (2013, March 11). Retrieved

September 14, 2014, from Online Learning Insights website:

https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/tag/peer-review/

The Problems with Peer Grading in Coursera. (2012, August 27). Retrieved September 16, 2014, from

Inside Higher Ed website: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/

problems-peer-grading-coursera

Workshop Module. (2012). Retrieved from:

Moodle website: https://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Workshop_module