Edinburgh Napier University

  The value of peer assessment lies in its potential to offer meaningful and engaging learning experiences to students through their involvement as active participants in marking and feedback (Falchikov, 2005). However, the design and facilitation of peer assessment schemes can be difficult to get right. This paper describes an action research project addressing the question 'How do students experience high stakes peer assessment in an online environment?' in the context of a fully online Masters-level programme in Blended and Online Education at Edinburgh Napier University. The programme is designed for educators with course tutors participating as co-learners at relevant points in individual modules. In a series of semi-structured interviews we used the 'emotional touchpoints' method (Dewar et al, 2009) to investigate participants' experience of producing and receiving peer marks and feedback on the module's student-led seminar assignment across two iterations of the module (2011 and 2012). We have concluded that students bring commitment and a strong sense of responsibility to the practice of peer assessment but that it can be a daunting process even for experienced educators. Consequently, thoughtful design of the process at every stage, together with careful preparation and ongoing support for participants is essential in order to address concerns and channel students' energy into productive aspects of the practice. We have also realised that it is challenging to embed the role of tutor as a colearner in the context of peer assessment. Simply telling students about the role of the tutor as co-learner has proved insufficient in promoting clarity and understanding as to what this role actually represents in a peer assessed activity. We believe that by providing opportunities for participants to engage with the idea of tutor as co-learner through explanation, dialogue and other pre-assessment activity, students will come to recognize and value the distributed expertise that resides across the peers, tutors and self.

Presentation slides can be viewed from slideshare - https://www.slideshare.net/emowat/peertopeer-the-full-cycle