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  7. Peer Review using Moodle Workshop: Students review generic Teacher Submission

Peer Review using Moodle Workshop: Students review generic Teacher Submission

Potential options:

  • Student reviews other individuals
  • Student reviews groupmates
  • Student review generic Tutor supplied submission

Students assess according to a criteria or rubric.

Review can be:

  • Comment based only, or
  • Comment based and grade, or
  • Grade only

Review can be:

  • Anonymous
  • Non anonymous

Published on: 17/10/2025 · Last updated on: 24/10/2025

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The Moodle Workshop is a powerful peer assessment activity, that can be used for individual peer review. Students add submissions which are then distributed amongst their peers for assessment based on a grading scale specified by the Teacher.

The Workshop has five phases:

  1. Setup Phase:
    • Complete settings and assessment form.
  2. Submission Phase:
    • Move to this phase to allow submissions which can be monitored via the Workshop dashboard.
  3. Assessment Phase:
    • Students review assigned submissions using criteria or a rubric.
  4. Grading Evaluation Phase:
    • Moodle calculates grades
    • Manually override grades or provide feedback if needed. Optionally publish exemplary submissions.
  5. Closed Phase:
    • Finalise grades, and send grades to the Gradebook, to allow students to view grades and feedback.

These instructions guide a teacher through configuring a Workshop activity where individual students review a single, generic submission provided by the teacher, using criteria or a rubric. The setup supports comment-based only, comment-based with grades, or grade-based only reviews.

Step 1: Set up the Workshop Activity

This is the Setup Phase where the Teacher must add the Workshop, configure the settings and the assessment form. Students cannot interact yet.

Add Workshop

  • Navigate to the desired course section, click Add an activity or resource, select Workshop, and click Add.

Configure Grading Settings

  1. Grading Strategy:
    • In the Grading settings section, choose a strategy based on your review type. What you choose here determines the assessment form students will use and also the strategy for grading submissions. For more detailed descriptions see Grading Strategies.
      • Comments: Select for comment-based only reviews, allowing qualitative feedback without grades.
      • Accumulative grading: Each assessment criterion has its own numeric grade along with optional weighting and optional comments; a final grade is calculated on the basis of the separate grades and their respective weightings.
      • Rubric: Use for comment-based with grades or grade-based only, providing a matrix of descriptive levels with grades and optional comments.
  2. Grade Settings:
    • Grade for submission: Set to 0, as students are not submitting their own work.
    • Grade for assessment: Set the maximum grade for the quality of students’ peer reviews (e.g., 100). This is the primary grade for the activity.
    • Grade to pass: Optionally set a passing grade for assessments, linked to activity completion.

Submission Settings

  1. Instructions for submission:
    • Since students are not submitting work, leave this blank or note that the Teacher will provide the submission.

Assessment Settings

  1. Instructions for assessment:
    • Provide clear guidelines for reviewing the teacher-provided submission (e.g. ‘Evaluate the sample submission based on structure, argument strength, and reference to the assessment question’. Provide constructive feedback’).
  2. Feedback:
    • Enable Feedback comments for text-based feedback (required for comment-based or comment-with-grade strategies).
    • Optionally allow Feedback attachments (e.g., annotated files) and set limits on number and size.
  3. Self-assessment:
    • Disable self-assessment, as students are not submitting their own work.

Availability Settings

  1. Set Deadlines:
    • Open for submission from: Disable as students do not submit work.
    • Submission deadline: Disable as students do not submit work.
    • Open for assessment from: Set when students can begin reviewing the Teacher’s submission.
    • Deadline for assessment: Set the due date for completing reviews.
    • Disable Switch to the next phase after the submissions deadline, as there are no student submissions.
  2. Phase Control:
    • Manually switch phases, as automatic transitions are less relevant without student submissions.

N.b. you may prefer to use manual switching to ensure all students are ready for the next phase. It is not possible to return to an earlier phase!

Edit Assessment Form (Criteria or Rubric)

  1. Access the Form:
    • After saving settings, click Save and display, then select Edit assessment form from the Workshop homepage.
  2. Configure Based on Grading Strategy:
    • Comments (Comment-based only):
      • Add criteria (e.g., ‘Structure’, ‘Use of Evidence’) with descriptions.
      • Students provide qualitative feedback without grades.
      • Click Save and preview, then Save and close.
    • Accumulative Grading (Comment-based with grades or grade-based only):
      • Add criteria with descriptions.
      • Assign maximum points per criterion
      • Enable comments for each criterion if desired; disable for grade-based only.
      • Set weights for criteria if needed (e.g., Content weight = 2).
      • Click Save and preview, adjust, then Save and close.
    • Rubric (Comment-based with grades or grade-based only):
      • Choose Grid or List format.
      • Define criteria
      • Assign unique grades to each level.
      • Enable comments if desired; disable for grade-based only.
      • Click Save and preview, adjust, then Save and close.
  3. Test the Form:
    • Preview the form to ensure clarity. Test as a student by using Switch role to… Student to verify the assessment process.

Step 2: Provide the Teacher Submission

  1. Add Example Submission:
    • From the Workshop homepage, click Provide example submission.
    • Upload a generic submission (e.g., a PDF or online text of a sample essay or project), and provide a title.
    • Save the example submission.
  2. Set Example Assessment Mode:
    • Set Mode of examples assessment to Mandatory (students must assess the example) or Optional (students can practice before assessing).
    • You can optionally provide a Reference assessment (e.g. an ideal review of the example submission) to compare student assessments against for grading accuracy.

Step 3: Allocate Submissions

  1. Manual Allocation:
    • In the Submission phase, allocate the example submission to all students:
      • From the Workshop homepage, click Allocate submissions.
      • Select Manual allocation, then assign the example submission to each student individually or use bulk selection to assign it to all enrolled students.
  2. Ensure Universal Allocation:
    • Check that every student is allocated the example submission to ensure participation.

Step 4: Manage Workshop Phases

The Workshop has five phases, adapted for this setup:

  1. Setup Phase:
    • Complete settings, assessment form, and example submission. Students cannot interact yet.
  2. Submission Phase:
    • Skip or quickly move through this phase, as students do not submit work. Switch to this phase briefly to allocate the teacher’s submission.
  3. Assessment Phase:
    • Switch to this phase to allow students to review the teacher-provided submission using the criteria or rubric. Monitor progress via the Workshop grades report.
  4. Grading Evaluation Phase:
    • Moodle calculates grades:
      • Submission grade: Not applicable (set to 0), as students do not submit work.
      • Assessment grade: Based on how closely a student’s review aligns with the reference assessment (if provided) or other students’ reviews. Adjust comparison strictness ( the default is “fair”).
    • Manually override grades or provide feedback if needed. Optionally publish the example submission with feedback.
  5. Closed Phase:
    • Finalize grades, push to the Gradebook, and allow students to view their assessment grades and feedback. Add a Conclusion statement.

Step 5: Optional Additional Settings

  1. Activity Completion:
    • If desired, set completion criteria (e.g., students must complete the assessment of the example submission).
  2. Notifications:
    • Use the News Forum or calendar reminders to notify students of the assessment deadline and phase changes, as Moodle doesn’t do this automatically.

Top Tips

  • Provide clear instructions: Ensure submission and assessment instructions are clear and specific.
  • Test the Activity: You can temporarily switch your role to ‘student’, (you will need to allocate yourself to a Group) to test the Workshop process in advance.
  • Monitor Participation: Track submissions and reviews, and send reminders to ensure all students participate.
  • Rubric Design: For rubrics, use distinct levels (e.g., 5 – Outstanding: Comprehensive and innovative vs. 3 – Satisfactory: Meets basic requirements).
  • Feedback Guidance: Encourage constructive feedback with examples (e.g., ‘Note strengths and suggest one specific improvement.’).
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