EXPLORING ONLINE PEER ASSESSMENT USING THE WORKSHOP ACTIVITY - Professor Mary Barrett at Moodlemoot AU 2014

1. EXPLORING ONLINE PEER ASSESSMENT
USING THE WORKSHOP ACTIVITY
Professor Mary Barrett, Faculty of Business
Sandra Humphrey, Educational Designer
University of Wollongong

2. WHERE IS UOW LOCATED?
Wollongong, NSW

5. Having students read and critique peers’ written work has been found to:
• result in better final writing products (Fitzgerald 1987: 481),
• reduce writing anxiety (Faris et al. (1999: 18),
• have fewer negative connotations than receiving faculty editing comments (Reese-
Durham 2005, 338),
• lead to better engagement because students use the assessment criteria their
teachers use (Falchikov and Goldfinch 2000: 287), and
• teach students how to give feedback, an important professional skill (Matherly and
Burney 2009; Pittinger et al. 2006).
THE LITERATURE...

6. THE LEARNING CONTEXT…
• MGMT901 - Fundamentals of Management
• Foundation subject in Masters program in Faculty of Business
• 2014 – 93 students enrolled (enrolments have exceeded 100 in some
sessions)
• Students come from diverse backgrounds
• Peer feedback introduced to develop writing and critiquing skills
• 2012-2013 trialled peer assessment with a blog and LMS

7. WHAT WE DID IN 2012…
2012 – redesigned peer assessment task
Why?
• Administrative and time pressures
• Tutorial attendance issues
• Reluctance to critique peers in class
• Delays in retrieving work from Turnitin =
frustration
• Increasing enrolments over time
• Variations in writing skills

8. USING THE BLOG…

9. USING THE BLOG…
1. Student uploads essay to blog post
1. Reviewers use comments in post to indicate their intention to
review
1. Reviewers complete and submit their review via confidential form
and de-identified feedback is made available to all students

10. • Steep learning curve for staff and students
• Most feedback was positive
• Some students found the instructions confusing
• Class time became more active and engaging
• Some refinements needed but overall successful
DID WE ACHIEVE OUR GOALS?

11. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

12. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

13. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
• Full anonymity for submissions and peers
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

14. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
• Full anonymity for submissions and peers
• Reviewer allocation can be manual or automatic
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

15. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
• Full anonymity for submissions and peers
• Reviewer allocation can be manual or automatic
• Feedback form is part of the tool
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

16. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
• Full anonymity for submissions and peers
• Reviewer allocation can be manual or automatic
• Feedback form is part of the tool
• Access and retrieval of submissions and feedback in one place
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

17. 2014 – peer assessment task designed in Moodle Workshop activity
Why?
• “One Stop Shop” for all tasks and events
• Streamline submission of essay and peer feedback
• Full anonymity for submissions and peers
• Reviewer allocation can be manual or automatic
• Feedback form is part of the tool
• Access and retrieval of submissions and feedback in one place
• Monitoring of feedback and marks in one place
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

18. What the students see
2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…

19. 2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…
What the students see

20. 2014 MOODLE WORKSHOP TRIAL…
The Planner is the key
The Phases:
● Setup workshop
● Submission
● Assessment
● Grading Evaluation
● Close workshop

21. Q6: I found the Moodle peer feedback tool easy to use
Strongly
agree
33%
32% 21% 9%
Strongly
disagree
4%
91% of students responded
STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS...

22. I found it interesting to use,
because it encouraged
students to stop and reflect on
how to further improve our
own essays & to be more
aware of the marking criteria.
I think this tool would be
beneficial to keep in
MGMT901.
The Moodle site is very
busy with a lot of links
and content. This
sometimes makes it
confusing to locate the
right sections to submit
assessments.
STUDENTS’ COMMENTS...

23. Moodle peer feedback tool is
easy to use and help to the
students. And I think it is worth
to be recommended strongly to
other subjects. The only thing I
suggest is that if the students's
comments were not limited in
200 words, it would be better.
Thank you.
The only suggestion is to
put more emphasis on
what is being looked for. I
found that the feedback I
received was a little off the
mark.
STUDENTS’ COMMENTS...

24. SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...
:
● It is helpful to have some knowledge of or experience with peer review and peer assessment when
designing for online peer work

25. SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...
:
● It is helpful to have some knowledge of or experience with peer review and peer assessment when
designing for online peer work
● Provide clear and concise information and instructions for students for each phase with emphasis on
which phase they are in, how they are to submit their work anonymously if you are using that
strategy, and how they will be progressing from submission to assessment.

26. SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...
:
● It is helpful to have some knowledge of or experience with peer review and peer assessment when
designing for online peer work
● Provide clear and concise information and instructions for students for each phase with emphasis on
which phase they are in, how they are to submit their work anonymously if you are using that
strategy, and how they will be progressing from submission to assessment.
● The Set Up phase is critical to the student’s progression and care should be taken to provide clear
and useful information and instructions

27. SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...
:
● It is helpful to have some knowledge of or experience with peer review and peer assessment when
designing for online peer work
● Provide clear and concise information and instructions for students for each phase with emphasis on
which phase they are in, how they are to submit their work anonymously if you are using that
strategy, and how they will be progressing from submission to assessment.
● The Set Up phase is critical to the student’s progression and care should be taken to provide clear
and useful information and instructions
● For an explanation of the formula that calculaters the review grade go to
http://www.slideshare.net/mark.drechsler/moodle-workshop-20-a-simplified-explanation

28. ● Review of team assignment by other teams not available in Moodle core. The University of NSW
has developed a group mode add-on that allows peer review of individual team members’
contributions to team work.
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...

29. ● Review of team assignment by other teams not available in Moodle core. The University of NSW
has developed a group mode add-on that allows peer review of individual team members’
contributions to team work.
● When switching from assessment phase to evaluation and grading phase, students will not be
able to submit , assess or re-assess any work
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...

30. ● Review of team assignment by other teams not available in Moodle core. The University of NSW
has developed a group mode add-on that allows peer review of individual team members’
contributions to team work.
● When switching from assessment phase to evaluation and grading phase, students will not be
able to submit , assess or re-assess any work
● In the Evaluation and grading phase, the teacher will be able to view existing calculated grades as
well as override grade calculations for any anomalies appearing in the grade allocations.
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...

31. ● Review of team assignment by other teams not available in Moodle core. The University of NSW
has developed a group mode add-on that allows peer review of individual team members’
contributions to team work.
● When switching from assessment phase to evaluation and grading phase, students will not be
able to submit , assess or re-assess any work
● In the Evaluation and grading phase, the teacher will be able to view existing calculated grades as
well as override grade calculations for any anomalies appearing in the grade allocations.
● In the close phase, students will see their grade unless you hide it via the Gradebook
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER...

32. Professor Mary Barrett
mbarrett@uow.edu.au
WHO WE ARE...
Sandra Humphrey
sandrah@uow.edu.au