Student engagement by employing student peer reviews with criteria-based assessment

Abstract

Evaluation of student projects by students themselves is highlighted in research as a method to engage the students, and to strengthen their learning and meta-cognition. Assessing others students' achievements can be a way for beginner students to develop insight into the academic criteria and methods in a subject. It can also contribute to their understanding of their own learning process and how they best can make progress with the studies. We used the Canvas functions Rubrics and SpeedGrader to manage a review of 524 student projects. We examined various aspects: how the students experienced this type of learning activity; whether the students' assessments were in line with the teachers' review; in what way and to what extent reviewing each others' work contributed to their learning; and how data generated through this activity provides information to teachers to improve their teaching. Despite some technical shortcomings and challenges, the experiment generated a series of insightful results.