How does the Peer Assessment feature work?

One of the options available when adding a new assignment in the Assignments tool is Peer Assessment.  Enabling this option facilitates a student peer review of assignment submissions by other students in the course.  Peer review allows students to review and critique each other’s work within parameters set by the instructor.

To add this option to an assignment, please see the Peer Assessment (Optional) step in the article How do I add an assignment?  

Once enabled, Peer Assessment has three phases, the student submission phase, the peer review period and the assignment grading.  

Student Submissions with Peer Assessment

Student Submissions with Peer Assessment

Students will submit their work just as they would for any other assignment added to the Assignments tool in UVaCollab.  For instructors, they can only view who has submitted and who has not.  Access to the student submissions is not available until after the review period has ended.

Peer Review Period

Peer Review Period

After the Accept Until Date has passed, the Peer Assessment review period begins.  At this time, instructors are still unable to view the student submissions; however, they can see who has been assigned to review each of the student submissions.

Note: Once the review period has begun, instructors should NOT modify the Due Date or Accept Until Date of the assignment.

Grading assignments with Peer Assessment.

Grading assignments with Peer Assessment.

Click the Grade link under the assignment title to begin grading.  

Note: Instructors will not have access to students’ assignment submissions for grading until AFTER the Peer Assessment Evaluation Period has ended.

Access individual student's grade screen.

Access individual student's grade screen.

Part of the Peer Assessment process for students includes entering a grade for the work they have reviewed.  The grades are then averaged together to determine a final grade which is displayed in the Grade column.

Click Grade under a student’s name to access the grading information that has been entered during Peer Assessment.

Accept or Override Averaged Grade

Accept or Override Averaged Grade

On the student’s grade screen, the Grade box has been populated with the averaged grade.  Instructors can either accept this grade or enter another value.

  • To accept the averaged grade, scroll down to the bottom of the student’s grading screen and click either Save and Don’t Release to Student or Save and Release to Student.
  • To override the averaged grade, enter a new value in the Grade box and click either of the Save options at the bottom of the screen.

Note: If changes are made to an already released grade, the grade will need to be re-released.  This can be done from the Student Grade screen using the Save and Release to Student button or from the Assignment Grade screen, Release Grades.