Practical things to try

Start small with low-risk units – i.e. a small number of students and formative tasks rather than summative. One such example is a peer review process for a postgraduate course where students model and learn how to write for academic publication.

Before submitting their final draft to the journal, students could have peers reading their work and giving feedback. Use the same rubric used for the journal to give feedback on the work. The important point here is that the task is authentic in that discipline and it is something that students feel comfortable and confident can be done formatively and stand alone. It also provides an opportunity to unpack the standards/rubric and explore what good/bad quality of work looks like.

Design a scaffolded process where learners can take part in self and peer assessment on more than one occasion. Imagine a project-based activity where students are working in groups over a course of a study unit. There could be a weekly peer evaluation component where students give each other feedback on their teamwork skills and contributions. This could be done via a simple rubric on teamwork that is  agreed at the start of the study unit and a spreadsheet or online tool such as FeedbackFruits. Over the duration of the project, students will gather peer feedback on their teamwork skills. By creating timely check in points, educators are able to have a conversation with students, individually and as a group, to refine the self and peer assessment process as it unfolds.

Use an online tool in a professional capacity to pilot with colleagues in giving each other feedback (peer review). Using a new online tool can be daunting for busy educators but, by creating an authentic context where tools are useful for ourselves and our students, and where we can practice in a safe space, we can reduce barriers to engagement. Peer review of teaching is a good example here. When educators experience creating and using a set of rubrics to give each other feedback through an online tool, we can start to imagine how we can make use of the same tool and process with our students. The idea of ‘sandpit’ is a good rhetoric here in experimenting and evaluating a new tool with like-minded/same course teams.