This week’s episode explores the nature and reliability of peer assessment in collaborative projects and assignments using students’ reflection and feedback.
See the full show notes for this episode at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/peer-assessment-in-collaborative-projects-and-assignments.
This week’s episode, hosted by Stephen Gyan, features an article from Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education and explores the nature and reliability of peer assessment in collaborative projects and assignments using students’ reflection and feedback:
Bong, Jiyae, and Min Sook Park. 2020. “Peer Assessment of Contributions and Learning Processes in Group Projects: An Analysis of Information Technology Undergraduate Students’ Performance.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 45 (8): 1155–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1727413.
60-Second SoTL is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.
60-Second SoTL
Episode 31 – Peer assessment in collaborative projects and assignments
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Jessie L. Moore:
How reliable is peer assessment in collaborative projects and assignments? That’s the focus of this week’s 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. This episode is the sixth in an 8-part series hosted by Elon University Masters of Higher Education students who are exploring collaborative assignments and projects as a high-impact practice. Listen for future episodes in their series wherever you subscribe to 60-Second SoTL.
0:27
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0:30
Stephen Gyan:
Hi, I am Stephen Gyan.
In ‘Peer assessment of contributions and learning processes in group projects: An analysis of information technology undergraduate students’ performance,” published in the Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, SoTL scholars Jiyae Bong and Min Sook Park studied the nature and reliability of peer assessment of students in a semester-long group project.
0:50
The study was conducted with 83 students taking an Information Technology Undergraduate Course in the USA during the summer of 2016, fall of 2017, and spring of 2018. 61 students who voluntarily participated in the study peer assessed their fellow group members on two different prompts constructed on 8 indicators: one being a closed-ended Likert scale and the other, open-ended.
1:13
The students first responded to the closed-ended prompts but were allowed to change their scores after responding to the open-ended prompts. The responses to the open-ended prompts, however, remained the same. The 8 indicators were developed around skills and knowledge, resource use, attendance, problem-solving, creative ideas and solutions, discussions, feedback, and suggestions of team members.
1:38
After collecting 210 peer assessment reports and evaluating them using t-test, the study showed that there were no significant differences between the open and closed-ended responses by the students in assessing their peers. However, there was no group agreement concerning the performance of identical students on the indicators, showing that subgroups of students might not have provided reliable reports for their peers. Also, most of the students made changes to the closed-ended prompts after providing informative feedback on the open-ended prompts.
2:13
The findings confirm the importance of reflection and feedback as useful tools in HIPs. Even for assessment, the study suggested deploying reflection and feedback approaches to help students provide a reliable assessment of their peers, given that peer assessment remains a major mode of assessment in collaborative projects and assignments. To learn more, see the full citation in our show notes.
2:38
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Jessie L. Moore:
Join us next week for another snapshot of recent scholarship of teaching and learning on 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Learn more about the Center at www.CenterForEngagedLearning.org.
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