Context

There are many benefits for students getting together to produce a poster, presentation or some other output to demonstrate their learning. However, peer assessment isn’t something I see very often. There could be a range of reasons for this from concern over cohort dynamics, workload, biased student feedback or lack of knowledge on how to set this kind of activity up. However, the benefits of peer assessment, in my opinion, outweigh the reasons why we, as educators, might shy away from it. Paul Chin highlights that one of the benefits of peer assessment is that students can “critique and review someone else’s work and thereby reflect on their own understanding or performance” (Chin, 2016). However, as we know, there are other professional skills that can be developed through peer assessment activities such as communication skills, leadership skills, organisation and teamwork (sometimes known as “soft skills” but the debate around that name can wait for another day!). Many of these professional skills are extremely important to our medical students, for whom this peer assessment was designed. The design of the assessment was done by myself, Liz Walkden,  lecturer Dr. Faye Tucker, our Faculty Librarian, Gem Sosnowsky and Learning Developer, Dr. Beth Caldwell.

The activities, which formed the peer assessment, were for Special Study Module 1 (SSM1). This module is for first year students on Lancaster Medical School’s MBChB programme. Special Study Modules make up the coursework part of Year 1 and Year 2 of the MBChB programme. Year 1 is an opportunity to teach students the skills that they need to succeed in the coursework in a scaffolded way. This then means that they are confident to conduct their own project in the second year.

What did the activity and assessment entail?

The peer assessment activity took place over several days. Students first took part in a 2.5-hour workshop where they met their group and learned what they needed to do. As part of this workshop, students set ground rules for their own group, assigned themselves roles within the group, discussed how and when they would meet and how they might use Microsoft Teams and other tools to coordinate, chat and share files.

Each group was given a set topic to research with relevant readings which they accessed through Moodle. The groups then worked together to create a poster to present to a selection of their peers. There were 27 groups in total, so the groups were split across 3 different rooms/lecture theatres for the live presentations. On the day itself, the cohort were split into three rooms for a conference style session, facilitated by the SSM1.  In this case, presentations were delivered in-person but, if suitable for the cohort or Programme, they could be delivered online using MS Teams or students could record themselves using the video platform eStream.

Not all students had to speak during the presentation of the poster and students could determine themselves who would present depending on the group dynamic and range of skills.

During the presentations, students filled out a short questionnaire providing their feedback on other people’s presentations. For example, a person in group A would give feedback on the presentation of a person in group B. The questionnaire supported engagement during the presentations and gave students a chance to provide constructive feedback to their peers. The set up of the questionnaire meant that students could not just give one-sided feedback; students gave their peers a “takeaway” and a “giveaway” (positive and negative feedback).

It is important that all types of assessment allow for reasonable adjustments for those students with additional needs. In addition, with first year students, it is especially important to offer flexibility as, for many students, delivering a presentation is nerve-wracking and often students are not that familiar with group work before they come to University. In the design process, we carefully considered how to make this an inclusive activity that would provide the flexibility and support to ensure that students could showcase their skills in a safe and positive environment.

“We are sometimes hesitant to do presentations with students as we don’t want students to feel uncomfortable or anxious. The group project allowed flexibility for students to self-organise, and gave them suitable tools to do so, so students could play to their strengths within the group. The way that technology was incorporated into content delivery, assessment, and feedback supported inclusion and learning away from the classroom. It helped students find their own roles in the group and take responsibility for the activity as a team.” – Dr. Faye Tucker

How was this set up in Moodle?

As the FHM Learning Technologist, the first thing I did was set up the relevant groups in Moodle to reflect the groups that students would be working in. I also set up groupings to reflect the three lecture theatres that the cohort would deliver their presentations in.

I then uploaded the resources from the workshop and I also created a help sheet on how students could use Microsoft Teams effectively when conducting a group project. This sheet included a suggestion that students could also use Microsoft Planner and other tools which might support their collaboration.

On the presentation day, the questionnaire was set up in Moodle and made available on the day of the presentations for students to access. The restrict access rule was applied in Moodle to the questionnaire as well as the other activities/files to ensure that each group only saw what was relevant to them. For example, each group saw their own set reading materials but none of the materials related to the other groups’ work. This meant that the resources they needed were more clearly presented on the Moodle page making it easier for students to find.

Overall, set up was straightforward considering there were 27 groups of five students. For support on how to set up groups and groupings in Moodle, check out this help video.

How did staff and students feel that it went?

Dr Faye Tucker felt that the experience was rewarding and can inform future development in the MBChB curriculum:

“This was a great opportunity to introduce students to different learning, teaching, and assessment. And, although there was only one type of submission (a poster) the students could demonstrate they had met the LOs through self-refection, peer-review, and by providing module evaluation. It would be great to offer alternative formats across our assessments on the MBChB where possible, such as podcasts or group submissions, so this was a great opportunity to trial something new and there is learning we can feed-forward into future assessment design.”

Following the peer assessment, we set up a feedback questionnaire in Moodle to ask students about their experiences. 108/117 students agreed or strongly agreed that their skills synthesising information from multiple sources improved. 104 students said their teamwork skills had improved. 94 students stated they enjoyed the activity with another 14 students saying that they neither agreed nor disagreed. Many students made additional, positive comments about the experience; some are included below:

“I really enjoyed this project. I met students I hadn’t spoken to before and it was quite nice to develop team working skills.”

“The two-and-a-half-hour workshop on Monday was useful as I believed it effectively covered everything we needed to know, and it also helped with meeting our group members. I really like the aspect of assigning roles to each group member since it helped provide structure to completing the poster in a timely manner.”

“I enjoyed it as it’s improved my collaboration skills and honed my ability to extract vital information from various sources.”

“I think that the information of setting up teams group and shared files was incredibly useful.”

Thinking of setting up a group work or a peer assessment activity?

If you want to explore alternative forms of assessment and find some support for setting these up in Moodle, please get in touch. Learning Technologists can support with the whole design process including creating mark schemes, creating resources and activities, and providing support on settings options in Moodle.

References

Chin, P. (2016). Peer assessment. New Directions in the Teaching of Natural Sciences, (3), 13–18. https://doi.org/10.29311/ndtps.v0i3.410