Education & Tools

Abtract: Well-designed peer review and assessment tasks have been shown in several studies to increase students’ engagement in courses and to help their ability to critique and evaluate work. These positive effects are primarily achieved through a “change of hats”, from writer to reviewer. Peer assessment by three to five students has been shown to be as valid as marking by teaching staff (e.g., lecturers or tutors). In this paper, I share an information technology (IT)- enabled peer review model with scaffolded assignments. The model is based on the idea of scaffolding peer-assessed assignments. That is, reading other students’ assignments becomes relevant for the reviewing student’s next assignment to make undertaking the review more interesting and relevant.

In addition, the model considers several peer review quality assurance measures, including detailed marking rubrics, marks for review quality and meta-review by teaching staff. The model shifts the role of the lecturer from the lone marker of a text to that of a higher-level “editor” and the role of students from authors to “reviewers” in an inclusive process. While I have designed the model for and use it in the context of information systems (IS) education, it will be applicable in higher education more broadly.