What is it?

The Group Peer Review Moodle activity has been developed by the TEL team. It allows students to rate one another after working on a group assignment. Typically you may want students to assess each others' contribution to the group task, and to adjust the assignment mark for individual students, based on the assessment they receive from their peers.

The final peer assessment mark is made up of the group assignment mark scaled by an aggregated peer assessment weighting. The tool brings a simple solution for collation and tracking, calculation and distribution of marks.

From a student view:

• Handles anonymous submission of scores and supporting justification (optional) to members of their group
• Receive their final scores

From a staff view:

• Uses group members from Moodle assignment
• Automatic calculations (handles non-submitters)
• Automatically moderates per individual if they are very generous/meagre
• Itemised downloadable reports
• Completion report of submissions and outstanding group peer submissions
• Can review student entries and override final scores before they are pushed to gradebook

How might I use it?

This tool is designed for assessed group work where you want students to assess each others' contribution to a group task. Students do not see individual marks and feedback comments from their peers. They receive an overall peer weighted mark for their submission. You can set up the peer review activity to take place after students have submitted an item of group work for assessment. You will need to help students prepare to take part in peer assessment.

How do staff and students use it effectively?

Before you set up your activity, take a look at the guidance on Peer Assessment, including some top tips and case studies.

When briefing your students

• Make sure students are aware of the purpose and benefits of taking part in the group peer review activity
• Provide the assessment criteria in advance with opportunities for students to ask questions and seek clarification
• Make deadlines clear in advance, and make sure students understand the importance of meeting deadlines within the peer review activity
• Explain if there are penalties for non-participation
• Provide guidance to show students how and when to upload their peer reviews. You can link to our student group peer review FAQs

To get set up, follow the guidance for staff on how to use the group peer review tool.

What are the pros & cons?

Pros

• students engage with and develop a greater understanding of the assessment criteria. To extend this further, involve students in co-developing the assessment criteria.
• students take responsibility for making assessment judgments and learn how to evaluate work by their peers
• students develop the skills to reflect on and evaluate their own work
• for group work, it can address the risk of unfairness in awarding a single group mark. The tool facilitates assessment of individual effort and contributions to group work

Using the Group peer review tool

• is easy to set up within Moodle, using Moodle groups - reduces administration
• provides a simple way for students to enter their peer assessment and feedback, at any time
• provides a simple solution for the collation and tracking, calculation and distribution of marks
• provides improved accuracy of the assessment by reducing the risk of transcribing errors if you were to use spreadsheets to compile marks
• staff can review entries and moderate final scores before they are published

Cons

The group peer review will take place online. The activity will run with a strict timescale. It’s not easy to implement individual extensions to deadlines, so make sure students are aware of the importance of the deadlines. Be prepared to send reminders and prompts.

When it comes to group peer assessment, students and staff may have concerns about whether students have the skills to mark each other’s work. Taking time to develop clear assessment criteria is an important stage of the process.

Case study

A case study is currently being developed.

An example of peer assessment of group work is available from University of Glasgow. This example uses different tools and scoring techniques, but outlines some considerations when approaching group peer assessment.

Further reading

Planas-Lladó, A. et al., 2018. Using peer assessment to evaluate teamwork from a multidisciplinary perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(1), pp.14–30.