Anonymously Peer-Reviewed Student Assignments

In a recent article published in Innovate online Reusable Learning Objects Through Peer Review: The Expertiza Approach, Edward Gehringer, Luke Ehresman, Susan G. Conger, and Prasad Wagle give an excellent example of facilitating problem-based learning in Web-based instruction. In this article, the authors explain how they utilized their Expertiza system (a National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Project) which consists of three Web-based applications: Shimmer, Peer Grader, and Consocenza (Web database) as a learning management system (LMS) to allow their students to problem-solve assignments and then have their work anonymously peer-reviewed.

In the text of this article, the authors list the fundamental stages for the peer review process for student assignments. I believe these “stages” to be extremely valuable for all distance learning instructors to evaluate. You may be able to use these phases in your course curricula, even if you do not have these Web-based applications. Here are their “stages” for your review and comment:

1. The signup phase. Students are given a list of potential topics and sign up for one of them. To ensure that all topics are chosen, sign-up for any particular topic may be limited.
2. The submit phase. Students prepare their work and submit it to PG.
3. The initial feedback phase. Students are given a limited time period—usually three to seven days—to make initial comments on their peers' work. Authors may revise and resubmit work for additional comment during this phase, but they are not required to do so.
4. The resubmission phase. During the next period—again usually three to seven days—students revise their work in response to reviewers' comments and resubmit it to PG.
5. The grading phase. At the end of this give-and-take, reviewers are required to assign a grade, which is one component of the author's final grade.
6. The review of review phase. After the review period is over, each student is presented with a set of reviews to assess. The students grade each review on a rubric that asks about the helpfulness of the review. The grades students receive for their reviewing are factored into their final grade for the assignment, with 20%–25% of the grade based on their reviewing.
7. The publishing phase. The best-reviewed student work is published to the Conoscenza database, where it is accessible to users around the world.

I look forward to your comments!