Evaluating the Use of Anonymous Peer Review of Drafts in a W Course

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Project team: Jillian Scott McIntosh, Department of Philosophy

Support provided: Development of proposal, RA to organize data collection and analysis

Description: Use of the anonymous peer review feature of Turnitin.com in a first-year course. The goal was to make students more reflective about their own writing by giving them the opportunity to provide feedback to others and to receive feedback from others. Data collection focused on the quality of the peer reviews and the relationship of this on next drafts produced by both reviewers and reviewees.

Questions: Is there a correlation between (a) how students perceive the quality of peer review and the grade they receive on their revised draft?; (b) how a student perceives the quality of peer review and the degree of improvement between initial and revised drafts?; and (c) the perceived quality of a peer review by the student who receives it and the grade received by the student who wrote the peer review? Is there improvement in quality between first and second peer reviews?

Knowledge sharing: Presentation to members of the Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (including those involved in W courses).