Published on: 15/09/2023 · Last updated on: 25/06/2026
Assessment type: Group Coursework
Group Peer Evaluation for formative assessment
The Group Peer Evaluation tool allows students to rate one another after working on a group assignment. Typically, you may want students to assess each other’s contribution to the group task, and to adjust the assignment mark for individual students, based on the assessment they receive from their peers.
The tool is designed for summative assessment. However you may wish to provide a formative assessment activity, or a low stakes activity, to allow students to practice and develop their peer evaluation skills.
The recommended workflow for setting up and using the tool is the same as for summative assessment. You will need to assign marks to a group assignment and students will need to assign marks in the Group Peer Evaluation (there is no option for feedback comments only). You will need to inform students in advance that the calculated marks are for formative feedback purposes only.
You will still need to save the final marks to the Gradebook, to make them visible to students, but not transfer them to SAMIS.
Recommended workflow:
1. Check/Housekeep existing Groups
If Groups have previously been used in previous year in the unit, you will need to delete the old Groups first.
2. Create Groups/Groupings
Before you can create a Group Assignment, you will first need to create some Groups and create a Grouping to house the groups.
3. Populate Groups with Students
Once you have made some Groups, there are currently two recommended approaches to adding students to them, for both approaches, consider group composition to avoid foreseeable barriers to participation.. If you want to add the students yourself, you can follow the steps here to manually add students to Groups.
Alternatively you can set up the Group self-allocation tool so that your students can add themselves into Groups.
Level 1 Reasonable Adjustment4. Provide detailed information about the assessment
It’s important to provide all the necessary information for students about the assessment.This should include: the assessment brief (using the standardised template defined by your Faculty/School), marking criteria and/or rubric, and information on submission format, deadlines, and submission method, and/or assessment conditions. This includes information about the use of GenAI, for which there is further information and suggested assessment brief text on The Two-Lane Approach to GenAI Assessment Categorisation. This could be provided via a detailed resource such as a Moodle Page.
Level 1 Reasonable Adjustment5. Create a group Assignment Activity
Before creating the Group Peer Evaluation activity, you first need to create a group Assignment Activity. Students will upload their submission as a group, and you will provide a group mark and feedback for the submission. Add guidance for students on how to upload their submission, and how to access their marks and feedback (including details of the Group Peer Evaluation activity).
6. Create Group Peer Evaluation activity and link to group Assignment
Add the Group Peer Evaluation activity to your course page, and link it to the group Assignment Activity
7. Provide detailed information about Group Peer Evaluation
Add information to your Moodle course page to explain the activity to students.
Review and edit the instructions for students in the description.
- Students will follow these guidelines when completing the peer evaluation
- Update the criteria descriptions to reflect the marking criteria for your activity
8. Set up weightings and assessment criteria
Read the guidance to understand how peer weighted marks are calculated. Set the Peer Evaluation weighting and maximum peer rating mark.
9. One Student per group uploads to the group Assignment Activity
Students can upload a PDF/Word/PPT or specialist file
10. Students give marks and comments to peers via Group Peer Evaluation activity
Students can give a mark for each group member. The criteria you have included in the description appear above the peer evaluation screen. Students enter comments for each member of their group.
- Remind students of the Group Peer Evaluation activity deadline
- Students will not see the marks or comments entered by other members of their group
- Students can complete a self-assessment if enabled in the settings
11. Monitor student participation and review student comments
To make sure all students complete the activity in time, you will need to monitor student participation. You can review student comments to make sure comments are appropriate
12. Add grades and feedback in group Assignment Activity
Go to the group Assignment Activity and add grades and feedback for each group. Note you must assign a single grade for each group. The Group Peer Evaluation activity requires a group assignment mark in order to calculate the peer weighted marks.
- You will need to select Apply grades and feedback to entire group to save grades and feedback to each group
- You can use a range of marking options within the Assignment Activity (e.g. PDF annotation, grades and feedback comments, download submissions for offline marking)
- Group grades and feedback will not be visible to students until you set Marking Workflow state to Released
13. Review final peer weighted marks and adjust if desired
Once you have entered grades in the group Assignment Activity, and students have completed their evaluations, Weighted group and Weighted peer marks will display in the Group Peer Evaluation activity for each student.
- You can review and adjust the Final mark if needed
- You may choose to to Hide the Group Peer Evaluation activity in the activity settings while you complete the review, and make it Visible to students afterwards once all the marks are saved. This will ensure marks are only visible to students after you have reviewed and saved them for every group
14. Save Group Peer Evaluation grades to Gradebook
When you are ready, you can save the final marks to the gradebook. This must be done group by group.
15. Students view their marks
Once you have saved the final marks to the gradebook, students can see their individual final mark by going back in to the Group Peer Evaluation Activity.
- Make sure student have clear instructions on where to access their final marks