Academic excellence for business and the professions

Peer Assessment

Leona NorrisSenior Educational Technologist,

Learning Enhancement and Development (LEaD)

Group work can be one of the most rewarding, but also most problematic tools for teaching and learning; it demands substantial organisational resource and is often cited by students as a point of difficulty with the risk of collaborators being slow, difficult or even entirely absent. Mechanisms such as peer assessment, where students rate each other on their contribution to group work, are therefore essential for students to truly benefit and ensure that group work and marks are fair and transparent. In this way students get real value out of group work, reflecting on their contribution and ways of working together, and staff are able to get a real sense of the groups' dynamics and their impact on work submitted.

For Cass Business School, previous peer assessment support meant using a variety of complicated and time consuming processes cobbled together, with room for error and very demanding in terms of resource. With the decommissioning of one of the key systems used, finding a new way to run this part of group work became essential, and the Peer assessment tool was therefore developed as a plugin for Moodle at the School’s request. We have started using this tool already, but feel that this newly developed functionality could provide substantial benefits to other institutions, giving students a more positive experience of group work without being prohibitively difficult in terms of administration. We therefore look forward to further review and evaluation to feed into the next round of improvements, as well as seeking to share the tool itself and any other experiences.

The Peer Assessment activity is a group assignment submission combined with peer grading.

For this activity, peer grading refers to the ability for students to assess the performance/contribution of their peer group, and if enabled, themselves, in relation to a group task. The group task is the file(s) submission component of the activity. The peer grading consists of a grade out of five and written comments on each student's performance.

Final overall grades for each individual student are then calculated from the differential of their individual and group peer grade averages, multiplied by five, and then added to or subtracted from the overall group submission grade (out of 100).

• Working as part of a team is an integral part of the role for many careers• Learning skills to support successful team working and build successful interpersonal

relationships important part• Peer review strategy for some modules across the Specialist Masters programme• Students are asked to grade their fellow group members’ and comment on their performance• Warned to think carefully about the grades and comments given - ensure they are truthful and

constructive - reviewed by lecturers

• In the student's interest to engage fully in all group work• If don’t contribute effectively your peers may mark you down - potential to significantly affect

your coursework grade• Complete lack of attendance or input could lead to failure in coursework component - need to

retake• To ensure student’s feel comfortable grading honestly, peer assessment grades are confidential

- unless the students wish to discuss amongst themselves

1Students

2Academic

3Peer Assessment

Activity

How it works

Student Group Group

coursework

Student APeer grades &

comments

Student BPeer grades &

comments

Student CPeer grades &

comments

Student DPeer grades &

comments

Students

DEA

DLI

NE

1. Student submission

Student submission

1. Submit assignment(group submission)

2. For each group member, choose Peer Grade and give

Feedback

Students also feedback on their peers’ input into the assignment

How student’s grade their peers

0 3 5

• No attendance at meetings. • No engagement in the project. • Does not complete assigned tasks. • No input into the assignment.

NB. Any students not engaging in group assignment are to be reported to the module leader

• Attends all meetings and engages enthusiastically.

• Well organised and motivated. • Able to negotiate with and motivate

others. • Contributes effectively and shows

creativity and initiative. • Significant and valuable input into

the assignment.

Grading criteria

Attendance at meetings, carrying out designated tasks, dealing with problems.

Effectiveness in meetings, negotiation with the group, communication between meetings, providing feedback.

Skills in self organisation, ability to organise others, planning, setting targets, keeping to deadlines.

Motivation, creativity, initiative during the project.

Contribution to meetings, clarity of the work submitted, objective quality of the work submitted.

Anything above and beyond the expected contribution that really improved the project and was outstanding in terms of creativity, quality, and/or work load.

Co-operation

Communication

Organisation

Enthusiasm

Actual contribution

Remarkable achievement

Students not grading the academic content but input to the project as a whole

Submission summary

3. Check summary and save

Who hasn’t submitted

Peer grade and feedback summary

4. Summary and ability to edit submission (before the

deadline)

Student Group Group

coursework

Student APeer grades &

comments

Student BPeer grades &

comments

Student CPeer grades &

comments

Student DPeer grades &

comments

Students

DEA

DLI

NE

Deadline passes

Student A’sPeer Grade Avg

Peer grade average calculation

Student B’sPeer Grade

Student C’sPeer Grade

Student D’sPeer Grade

Number of Student A’s Peer Grades

GroupPeer Grade Avg

Student B’sPeer Grades

Total

Student C’sPeer Grade

Total

Student D’sPeer Grade

Total

Student A’sPeer Grades

Total

Number of Peer Grades

Individual and group averages

Student’s Peer Grade Average

Group Peer Grade Average

Student Group Group

coursework

Student APeer grades &

comments

Student BPeer grades &

comments

Student CPeer grades &

comments

Student DPeer grades &

comments

Academic Grade group coursework

Students Academic

DEA

DLI

NE

2. Academic grading

Group coursework grade

3. Add coursework grade and feedback

2. View students’ peer grades with averages and

feedback

1. Choose group to grade

Student Group Group

coursework

Student APeer grades &

comments

Student BPeer grades &

comments

Student CPeer grades &

comments

Student DPeer grades &

comments

Academic Grade group coursework

PA ActivityCalculates

Student A grade

PA ActivityCalculates

Student B grade

PA ActivityCalculates

Student C grade

PA ActivityCalculates

Student D grade

Students Academic PA Activity

DEA

DLI

NE

3. Calculate final peer grade

Student A’sPeer Grade Avg

Student A’sCoursework Grade

Reduces

GroupPeer Grade Avg

Student A’sPeer Grade Avg

Student A’sCoursework Grade

Increases

GroupPeer Grade Avg

Student A’sPeer Grade Avg

Student A’sCoursework Grade

GroupPeer Grade Avg

Final peer grade calculation

Final grades

Students’ peer grades, individual average peer grade and feedback

Group average peer grade

Calculated grades

Group coursework grade

Export group grades to CSV

Ability to export individual group’s grades

Other supporting processes

1. Resolve within the group

2. Can’t resolve – Module Leader or Course Director

3. Remains unresolved –Peer Assessment Review

Panel

ModerationGrades and comments are reviewed and moderated to ensure fairness.

Peer Assessment Review Panels can also be requested by lecturers if grading is out of line with the norm as part of the moderation process.

Dealing with group problems

Feedback from staff and students

Future improvements

Questions