Benefits of Peer Review Assignments

Peer Review assignments can deliver benefits to both teachers and students.

• Higher Order Thinking Skills
  In order to evaluate the work of others, students must think about relevant concepts at a higher cognitive level. Peer review also encourages reflection, which is a higher order thinking skill.


• Student Involvement in the Assessment Process
  Students are not able to leave the task and forget about it after they submit. Students may learn more deeply when they are involved in both the creation and the assessment of assignment submissions.


• Students Receive More Feedback and Faster
  Students receive feedback from peers and instructors. Peer reviews can come much faster than teacher reviews.


• Reviewing Encourages a Community of Learners
  Students who view the work of their peers are given a sense that they are not alone in their learning journey.


• Streamlined Marking for Teachers
  Teachers can adopt various levels of moderation depending on how much input they wish to have over the assessment process. If peer reviews are correct and consistent the system will suggest a mark, which the teacher can apply as a final mark. Teachers can have greater oversight of submissions, even marking all submissions if they so desire. Armed with pre-existing reviews, a saved list of comments, and a streamlined process, moderating a peer-review assignment be achieved will less effort than regular marking.

These benefits depend on the task and criteria being well designed. The advice given on the Analysis page may assist you in improving your Peer Review assignments.