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Peer feedback: Online peer feedback in groups

Brief description

In this exercise students must give peer feedback on each other’s written products. This is facilitated by means of a blog in which the students must submit their assignments. A follow-up conversation with the students about the feedback must also take place online in video meetings in which they will work in groups to clarify the meaning of the written feedback.

Motivation for the exercise and required outcome

The purpose of the exercise is for the students to gain experience of peer feedback while working on their own written products. In the exercise they will relate actively to the content of the course through their fellow-students’ work and to their own products through the feedback they receive from their peers. This will reduce the students’ need for feedback from you as a teacher, as instead they receive guided feedback from each other. The exercise may be used in connection with academic writing and comprehension of assignment genres or in connection with concept clarification and text reading.

Performing the exercise

  • You as a teacher must set an assignment for the students and also define the shape of the feedback, for instance by preparing a Rubrics. The written product may be a draft for a problem statement or an explanation of a concept prepared as an online collaborative writing assignment.
  • Divide the students into groups and ask them to create a written product jointly.
  • The students should submit their text online in groups, using for instance a blog or a file in OneDrive which can be read by the other students.
  • The groups must then give written feedback on each other’s texts and also share this online with each other.
  • The groups meet at an online video meeting and discuss the feedback orally with the students they gave feedback to and received feedback from.

Options:

  • The exercise may be used for various types of written products. Examples may be a written explanation of a concept or theory, a draft problem statement for an exam etc.

You will need:

  • You may use a blog or Peergrade for feedback, or you may set up online meetings using Collaborate or Skype.

Worth considering:

  • To which extent should you prepare the students to receive peer feedback? They should understand that this should not be considered as assessment but rather as critical and constructive reading.