Canvas provides an easy-to-use peer review system that enables students to give each other feedback on submitted assignments. In the last few months, both John Geppert, Professor of Finance, and Amber Messersmith, lead instructor for BSAD220, have employed this tool in the peer review process to improve student writing.
Geppert found peer ratings to be close enough to be meaningful and that students were not systematically harder or easier graders than the professor. Messersmith used peer review of writing during recitation sections of her blended large-enrollment course.
Recitation instructor, Elizabeth Vickers said, “[After peer review of the first draft] most of the errors are fixed, I can focus on the content.”
Web Links: To learn more about either of these courses, please read Seeking to increase writing across the curriculum, Geppert puts Canvas Peer Review to the test (http://teaching.unl.edu/seeking-increase-writing-across-curriculum-geppert-puts-canvas-peer-review-test) and Giving students new options: Using a blended mode and peer review in a large enrollment undergraduate writing course (http://teaching.unl.edu/giving-students-new-options-using-blended-mode-and-peer-review-large-enrollment-undergraduate) on http://teaching.unl.edu/.
Contact: Sydney Brown, Assistant Director, Innovative Instructional Design, sbrown3@unl.edu, 2-5204