Welcome Message

What is this Workshop About?

When students are given the opportunity to evaluate other students’ work, they can increase their understanding of the subject matter while developing a transferable skill set (Dochy, Segers, & Sluijsmans, 1999; Nicol, Thomson, & Breslin, 2014). With peer assessment, students learn by giving feedback to peers and by receiving peers’ feedback on their work.

The goal of this workshop is to help you effectively evaluate the written work of other students in your class. In this workshop, you will practice grading sample essays and writing critical and constructive feedback/comments on the sample essay based on a rubric. A rubric delineates specific expectations about an assignment, and thus it helps students focus their efforts on assignments that are in line with those expectations. Students who have completed this workshop tend to receive a higher grade on their own assignment as they have become familiar with a rubric and aware of the traits that distinguish successful assignments from those that fail to meet the expectations. 

The sample essay used in this workshop was written by the previous student in this course and is reproduced with permission to use in this workshop. To complete this workshop, you are required to evaluate it.

References

Dochy, F., Segers, M., & Sluijsmans, D. (1999). The use of self-, peer and co-assessment in higher education: A review. Studies in Higher Education, 24, 331-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079912331379935 Links to an external site.

Nicol, D., Thomson, A., & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: A peer review perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39, 102-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.795518 Links to an external site.

Learning Goals

Upon the completion of this Peer Assessment Tool, students will be able to:

• Critically analyze and evaluate the work of peers in this course using the assignment description and rubric
• Identify critical and constructive comments written by others
• Write critical and constructive comments on peers’ written work

Activities at a Glance

The workshop has a three-part structure:

PART 1: Assignment & Rubric

The workshop begins with information about an assignment and grading rubric. You must pass a quiz, that assesses your understanding of the assignment and rubric before you proceed to the next part.

PART 2: Mini-Lesson on Writing Critical and Constructive Comment

In this mini-lesson, you will learn about critical and constructive comments. The workshop provides several tips for writing quality feedback with examples of some poor and better-written comments. Then, you will be asked to rank sample comments from best to worst. 

PART 3: Sample Essay(s)

In Part 3, you will practice review skills with sample essay(s).