University of the People

UNIV 1001: Online Education Strategies

Written Assignment | Unit 2

University of the People Educational Methods: Peer Assessments

Dr. Vanessia Wilkins

By: Anonymous
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According to the University of Reading (n.d) Peer Assessment involves student taking

responsibility for assessing the work of their peers against set assessment criteria. This allows

students to engage in providing feedbacks to each other. At UoPeople students are given an

opportunity to participate in peer assessment through the discussion forums and assessing written

assignments each week. These activities are strategies used in an active learning environment.

When students are encouraged to be participants in their learning process it provides them with a

number of benefits.

Firstly, these activities such as participating in the discussion or written assignments by

giving feedback and assessing other’s work, help the students to build relationships and

understanding of each other. As UoPeople a melting pot of students from all over the world.

Secondly, it helps to keeps the students engaged, as the Uopeople learning platform does not have

any mandatory or time bound meetings (lectures) therefore, the activities each week provides an

opportunity for students to learn independently. Assessing each other’s work also helps to enhance

students learning and provide opportunity for growth and builds self-esteem so they can have

confidence when offering support and accepting feedbacks. As Bruer (1994), as cited in Zohar

(2013), posited that "as students engage in conversation, they draw on the knowledge and expertise

of others, reflect on their own ideas, and internalize modes of knowledge and thinking represented

and practiced in the subject” (p. 286). Essentially, peer assessment helps to develop students into

active learners as they become participants in their own learning.

Despite the fact that students get a chance each week to learn from each other through these

discussion and written assignment, it must be noted that it is not an easy task when receiving and

giving feedback. It can be challenging when giving feedback to peer as one may take feedback

personal. Some students may take the review of their work personally because they believe they

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have invested a lot of time and energy into it and when it not received how they expected, it can

be a blow to their self-esteem. That is why students are encouraged to be respectful of others during

this process. While students are encouraged to share their opinions and ideas, they also have to be

mindful when giving feedback. As offense maybe taken and this may be depending ones race,

beliefs, or even the timing and how feedback was delivered. For example, a student may have

reviewed a peer’s assignment after which they comment using strong words that may be offensive

and cause disagreement in the forum. This kind of behavior is discouraged because it takes away

from the learning experience not only for the reviewer and the reviewee but all other students as

well.

Nichol, Thomson & Breslin (2014), made an important observation when they stated that

giving feedback to others is a cognitive activity that is very demanding and require significant

student engagement; student cannot be passive when giving feedback whereas they can be passive

when in using feedback they received. Thus, the ideas behind giving feedback is help our fellow

peers. Importantly, making judgement about other’s work and providing feedback commentary

should help the student develop the ability to appraise their own work as the same skills are

involved. Hence, feedbacks can be essential to helping each individual to be more independent

and more effective at their own learning.

When assessing peer assignments, the best strategies best to practice is creating of a

guideline which will helps to; understand the concept of the assignment given, identify the

information or ideas you are looking for, how the ideas are presented and how the information was

sourced. This is known as a rubric and is usually provided by the instructor of the course being

taken. In doing so, students will understand how and why their peers provide a certain answer to

the prompt, how they understood what was given and determine if the information provided is

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from an accurate or credible source. The assignment will be scored on each criteria or element

base on the information and sources that are provided. It is then essential to provide feedback on

the student’s strengths and weaknesses. Similar to the discussion assignment, where it is necessary

to understand the topic being discussed. That way it’s easier to identify important points and

analyze the sources used to support the discussion. Thus, allowing the students to provide feedback

on why they agree or disagree with their peer’s work.

In conclusion, Peer Assessments can be very beneficially to the development of

independent learners in learning environments where there is no direct teaching. It Important to

help students learn from each other and also improve on their own learning abilities. However, it

must be noted that providing and receiving feedback to and from peers can sometimes be

challenging and so students are encouraged to be respectful and mindful of what they say and how

they say it. One of the best ways be as objective as possible in this process is to utilize a course

rubric that help students understand the reason behind their results.

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References

Nichol, D., Thomson, A. & Breslin, C. (2011). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education:
A peer review perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Pg. 39.
10.1080/02602938.2013.795518

The University of Reading. (n.d.) Engage in Peer Assessment: Peer Assessment. [Webpage]
Retrieved from https://www.reading.ac.uk/engageinassessment/peer-and-self-
assessment/peer-assessment/eia-peer-assessment.aspx.

Zohar, A. (Nov 2013). Inquiry learning as higher-order thinking: Overcoming cognitive

obstacles. In Inquiring into inquiry learning and teaching in science (Part 3). Retrieved
from https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/s3fs-public/InquiryPart3.pdf

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