Student Peer Assessment to reinforce community and the role of audience

Event Date & Time

Event Description

Pillar: Transformative Learning

In this session on student peer assessment (SPA), we’ll look at the first iteration of a course that included a series of group assignments incorporating SPA, including instructional support, assignment specifications and rubrics shared with students. Stepping back from this specific example, I’ll share not only my rationale for including SPA in a multidisciplinary academic language class, but discuss larger pragmatic and ideological issues of implementing SPA raised in the literature (Ashenafi, 2017; Grajczonek, 2009; Thondhlana & Belluigi, 2017; van Gennip et al, 2009). After debating the merits and applicability of criteria vs. norm-based peer assessments to individuals’ contexts, workshop participants will have some time to think and talk through how they might incorporate SPA as part of small and/or large group projects, trouble-shoot potential pitfalls, and receive feedback and further suggestions from fellow attendees.

Working within a framework of aligning a course’s activities to its learning outcomes and assessments, we’ll return to articulating learning outcomes that represent valued dispositions and behaviours in our disciplines, then ensuring the assessments transparently represent them. I’ll share the process I use in developing customized rubrics, and how I frame peers’ narrative feedback in productive ways. Participants should have time to further revise their SPA plans and sketch out their own rubrics. Lastly, we’ll look at some of Canvas’ affordances and limitations in supporting SPA, as well as some low-tech work-arounds.

By the end of this session, attendees should be familiar with the basics of issues raised in the literature around student peer assessment, including rationales for inclusion, the role of interpersonal factors, and various criteria for assessment. Participants should be more confident with customized yet sustainable ways to incorporate SPA to support their individual courses and disciplinary practices.

Facilitator: Jennifer Walsh Marr, Lecturer, UBC Vantage College