Peer review

What is it?

Online-peer review is where students submit their work or ideas via a web-based program in which the work is then assessed by other students who have a similar level of knowledge in the field. The students comment on the individual’s areas of excellence or point to areas that could be improved upon. The intention is that feedback on the work submitted will help to verify work standards, increase creativity and provide recognition and reward to individuals for outstanding achievement. When students create their work online, for example, using blogs or wikis, the tools allow progress to be verified – as well as the final outcome, which becomes immediately accessible to the peer reviewers. Social bookmarking services often given you the ability to vote on, or rate, websites that others have found, thereby creating a peer-review system for helping to judge the quality of online resources. A virtual conferencing space provides an online environment where work can be submitted, and comments or polls used to review work.

Pros and cons

The web environment allows for access to the material to be reviewed more quickly than by more conventional methods. This means that, if the work needs to be reviewed within a tight timeframe, you can consult more widely and achieve a greater diversity of opinion than you might otherwise have been able to.
Can act as a verification of work. This can be especially helpful when you need a sample group to ensure that the majority of contingencies have been covered.
Allows the opinions of quieter members of the group to be heard.

Fit for purpose?

Accessing the material in an online environment is an appropriate technique for reviewing work that incorporates digital media. Work that makes use of video, audio, photos or interactivity can be easily viewed and tested.

Some software packages are capable of tracking the whole peer review process: ie when work was submitted, how many have reviewed the work, what the responses were etc. They can also send out ‘reminders’ for overdue reviews.

Peer review in an online environment can help to keep the reviewer’s identity anonymous.

Find out more

For more ideas of how this strategy can work in practice, go to the following case studies:

Blogs – Collaboration with blogs and online documents, Colleen Hodgins
Virtual conferencing – Building a class with virtual conferencing, Graeme Wilton
Wikis – Extending learning with wikis, Lynn Gibb
Wikis – Resource making and media sharing with wikis, Glen Campbell