Khadijah Abdullah

Unit 4 Written Assignment

07/07/23

Peer Assessment as defined by Cornell University “Peer assessment or peer review provides a
structured learning process for students to critique and provide feedback to each other on their
work.” (Peer assessment: Center for Teaching Innovation, Cornell University). Universities may
require this to help improve students’ critical and creative thinking as well as their writing
abilities. Student’s responsibilities with this learning structure are ensuring their writing follows
the provided syllabus to maximize the benefits via writing. They also must read and critique their
peers’ work improving on their reading and thinking abilities. Peer Assessment is a helpful tool
in increasing students' writing ability and their creative and critical thinking abilities.

University of the People is one the universities that uses Peer Assessment learning structure.
Uopeople use this learning structure as a way to improve their students’ thinking skills and give
them perspectives from their peers. Peer assessment can provide some challenges, some of which
may differ between students. Just the same, peer assessment can provide some benefits amongst
peers, some of which depends on how the students maximizes this learning structure. All the
same, students must look at the positives and come up with strategies to receive all possible
benefits.

Giving and receiving feedback can be challenging for some students. Amongst these challenges
are students’ not being able to emotionally handle criticism, framing their words in an
understandable manner for their peers to understand their point(s), or just not wanting to put in
the effort to analyze their peers' work and give feedback. It is impossible to determine how many
students struggle with any of these and many more challenges; These universities cannot cater to
and improve on all of these challenges for every student, therefore it is the students’
responsibility to improve on these challenges of theirs themselves to get the best out of their
education. Students must have the commitment to work their hardest for their own best interest.

I used to not like peer assessment when I first joined University of The People due to the fact
that I was not committed to getting the most out of my education. But since returning I have
become determined to get the best out of my education for my own sake. With this, I must have
strategies for peer assessments. A strategy I have is reading all of the materials needed to have a
complete understanding of my assignments, that especially includes the syllabus along with the
peer assessment rubric provided. WIth the syllabus, I intend to use it as one of my guidelines to
judging my peer’s work based on the requirements that have been set for us. I have been using
the same strategy for assessing and critiquing discussion assignments and will continue to do so
moving forward.

Peer assessment is an innovative learning structure used by universities like University of The
People that requires students to give and receive feedback and be critiqued. This learning
structure can be seen as a burden, especially when it’s required in conjunction with plenty of
assignments. When peer assessment is required, supplementing some writing assignments with it
to achieve the same goal(s) may not be such a burden. Professors along with the university have
all of the student’s best at heart and will do their best to assist students with these responsibilities.
Overall, the benefits received from peer assessment depends on the students and how they
maximize the benefits offered.

Resources:

Peer assessment: Center for teaching innovation. Peer assessment | Center for Teaching
Innovation. (n.d.).
https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/assessment-evaluation/peer-assessment

Word Count: 594 words (including reference), 572 words (discluding reference)