Relevance

Peer assessment is a didactic method in which instructors design a structured feedback loop among learners to improve a learner’s submitted assignment. Sharing views and opinions by discussing with peers and receiving and providing constructive and formative feedback enriches the quality of learning. When linked to developing critical thinking skills, peer assessment can train students in practicing awareness about their reasoning as writers and as reviewers. As a form of asynchronous collaboration, the method lets students learn through discussion, through collaboration, and through production. In this course, you will critically assess the learning benefits of peer assessments and design a peer assessment exercise for your own teaching.

Trainer

Dr. Erik Jentges, ETH Zürich, D-MTEC Teaching Innovations Lab

My expertise for the course

At my department, I advise faculty on designing and implementing peer assessment exercises. Peer assessments can save the instructor’s time and energy, and it can help students develop a number of useful skills, e.g. communicating their ideas clearly and giving constructive feedback. I have experience with numerous exercises that are based on individual peer-to-peer evaluations on written assignments, feedback on video presentations, and group-based assessments, either as online administered double-blind reviews or as classroom activities. Together with a colleague, I conceptualized an innovative critical thinking exercise (the 6 sentence argument) that uses peer reviews as a central element.

My background

At ETH Zurich’s Department of Management, Technology and Economics, I develop teaching innovations and support the faculty as educational developer on their instructional designs. In the last ten years, I have worked with faculty and students in several disciplines such as management and economics, but also communication studies, sociology, political science, and psychology. I look back on a decade of experience in higher education institutions in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. Many insights into learning designs stems from my involvement with youth and adult education with various civil society organizations.

Course Content

– Definitions of peer assessment (peer review, peer feedback)
– How to design and review a peer assessment exercise in a course design
– Communicating the learning benefits of peer assessment
– Characteristics of student collaboration in peer assessments

Aim

After attending the course,  you will be able to…
… design a peer assessment exercise for their own courses.
… assess the learning benefits of different peer assessment exercises.

Additional information

The course has a short online exercise (pre-course Peergrade submission) to make you familiar with an online tool for peer assessment.

Please bring your laptop or tablet to the workshop. Please ensure in advance that you are able to access the internet via the academic network ‘eduroam’: www.eduroam.ch

Date and time

05.03.2018, 13:00-17:00