The document explores the implementation and benefits of student peer assessment (SPA) in education, emphasizing its potential to enhance learning in large classes. It outlines the experiences and insights of various educators, highlighting the importance of structured training, comparisons, and feedback in making SPA effective. The authors provide practical takeaways for successful integration of SPA in teaching practices.

1. Can student peer
assessment work
in my teaching?
Drs. Catherine Rawn, Katja Thieme, Andrew Owen & Isabeau Iqbal
Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019

2. Student peer assessment
“the quantitative or qualitative evaluation
of a learner’s performance by another
learner of the same status” (Patchan & Schunn, 2015,
p.592)
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3. Student Peer Assessment
Overview
3

4. Raise your hand if...
You have used SPA extensively in your
teaching
You have tried SPA out in your teaching
Isn’t SPA where I can get a facial?
4
Image by Freepix from Flaticon

5. Benefits and Challenges
5
▪ Plenty of both!
▪ Specifics depends on how they’re implemented
▪ See https://wiki.ubc.ca/images/a/ad/Student-peer-assessment.pdf

6. Large Classes,
Small Assignments
Dr. Catherine Rawn
Professor of Teaching
Psychology
cdrawn@psych.ubc.ca @cdrawn
blogs.ubc.ca/catherinerawn/
peerassessment.arts.ubc.ca/

7. Why I started
7Image by Dinosoftlabs from Flaticon
▪ To be able to incorporate short written assignments in
classes of 250-400 students (Intro Psychology), and
help students understand their skill in relation to others
▪ Learned of a tool that would help me facilitate this:
peerScholar

8. SPA in my teaching
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▪ Peer Assessment Training Workshop for practice (1%)
▪ Before each test (x4) take a concept and apply it (~400
words)
▪ Evaluate 4-6 peers’ submissions using short rubric and
constructive comment box
□ Receive average of peers’ evaluations (1% x 4)
▪ Rate quality of feedback you have received
□ Receive average quality rating (2%)
▪ Total all steps: 10% of course grade

9. Implementation: Takeaways
9
▪ Practice data export before commit to a software. Make
sure you can get the values you need/want.
▪ Assign students to review 6, to ensure most receive 5-6
(crucial for reliability)
▪ Consider using median or arithmetic mean
▪ Have an appeals process (e.g., form)
▪ Manually check any assessment grade with 3 or fewer
reviewers
▪ Adding training workshop helped increase student trust in
each other

10. Teaching Students to Provide Quality
Peer Review to Each Other’s
Assignments
Dr. Katja Thieme
Instructor
English Language & Literatures
Katja.Thieme@ubc.ca
@Katja_Thieme

11. Why I started
★ Teaching writing intensive courses—including peer
review and scaffolding assignments are best practices
★ Student benefit from receiving more than one set of
feedback comments
★ Students benefit from reviewing other students’ work
while figuring out strengths & weaknesses of their own
11Image by Dinosoftlabs from Flaticon

12. SPA in my teaching
★ ComPAIR: a learning technology for peer review &
feedback developed by UBC
★ Key feature: Students first rank, then review 2 pieces of
peer work side by side
★ Integrating the law of comparative judgement
(Thurstone, 1927) into peer review:
○ People are more reliable in assessing quality when comparing
one thing with another than when making judgements in
isolation.
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13. ComPAIR
Introduction to ComPAIR: https://youtu.be/USDkA798Sf8
Available for download on GitHub: http://ubc.github.io/compair
Step 1. Students submit
their own draft.
Step 2. Students compare
& rank 2 other drafts in
response to a question.
Step 3. Students write
detailed feedback on the 2
ranked drafts. Repeat 2x/3x.
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14. Successes
★ Comparisons give a reference point for learning
★ In ComPAIR:
○ Students use each piece of work in a pair as a reference point for the other
○ Comparing helps identify strengths or weaknesses that might not be as
evident when reviewing a single isolated piece of work
○ Especially useful for writing formative feedback
14Image by Freepik from Flaticon

15. Successes
★ Students’ learning benefits depend on good integration—use
relevant language (metalanguage) throughout the term
★ Generally, more positive experiences when:
○ Students understand what they are practicing before providing
feedback (model crucial parts of assignments!)
○ Assignments tie into a larger process or goal in the course
○ Students receive guidance (multiple/detailed criteria) in what to look for
○ Assignments require multiple comparisons (repetition with the same
work helps build confidence in writing peer feedback)
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16. Samples of Peer Feedback
Metalanguage Project with Dr. Laila Ferreira
Most Detailed
“As I understand, your key
concepts are nationalism
and the propaganda,
however, I cannot see those
in your second paragraph.
You should mention about
those and also I do not
understand your argument,
you need to be more clear
about it.”
Somewhat Detailed
“As I understand, your key
concepts are nationalism
and the propaganda,
however, I cannot see those
in your second paragraph.
You should mention about
those and also I do not
understand your argument,
you need to be more clear
about it.”
Least Detailed
“There is no title for the
essay, and there are a lot
grammatical errors in your
writing.”
“The second paragraph was
not completed, some words
were insufficient.”
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17. Pitfalls
When you haven’t
→ provided enough precise language for necessary elements
of the assignment,
→ shown and discussed models for assignment & feedback,
the feedback will not be as successful and the students’ peer
review experience will suffer.
17Image by Smashicons from Flaticon

18. Implementation: Takeaways
★ Use and repeat precise terms for necessary assignment
elements
★ Integrate those terms in multiple ways
★ Model assignment elements and feedback practices
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19. Assorted attempts
Dr. Andrew Owen
Instructor
Political Science
andrew.owen@ubc.ca

20. Why I started
▪ Encourage active reflection on submitted work (and
feedback)
▪ Help students understand what makes for a good
‘answer’.
20Image by Dinosoftlabs from Flaticon

21. SPA in my teaching
▪ 1 page of comments on research paper prospectuses in
a 400 level seminar.
▪ 200 word comments on draft 500 word papers in 300
level lecture.
▪ 1-2 sentence comments on multiple short answers
submitted in 300 level stats course.
▪ Using multiple technologies.
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22. Successes
Student feedback, via surveys, consistently positive.
Evidence of thoughtful incorporation of peer’s ideas in final
submissions
22

23. Pitfalls
▪ Takes time - grading the peer assessments
▪ Technological hiccups
▪ Additional deadlines
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24. Implementation: Takeaways
▪ Rubrics
▪ Practice
▪ Communication (deadlines, motivation)
▪ Workload tradeoffs (yours and theirs)
▪ Start small?
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25. Questions
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26. References
Patchan, M. M., & Schunn, C. D. (2015). Understanding the benefits of providing peer feedback: how students respond to peers’
texts of varying quality. Instructional Science, 43(5), 591-614.
Thurstone, L. L. (1927). A law of comparative judgment. Psychological Review, 34(4), 273-286.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0070288
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27. Thank-you!
Faculty of Arts
Catherine Rawn cdrawn@psych.ubc.ca
Katja Thieme katja.thieme@ubc.ca
Andrew Owen andrew.owen@ubc.ca
Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
Isabeau Iqbal isabeau.iqbal@ubc.ca
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28. Jacquenetta presentation template from Slide Carnival. https://www.slidescarnival.com/jacquenetta-free-presentation-template/1929
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Please attribute to Drs. Catherine Rawn, Katja Thieme, Andrew Owen & Isabeau
Iqbal, University of British Columbia
For more information about this license, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
sa/4.0/