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Peer feedback

Peer feedback, done by individual students or groups of students, can have a lot of benefits. It helps students to improve their work by learning from the feedback of others, they get a better feeling for what is expected of them and students become more engaged in the process. When used as intermediate feedback, e.g. on drafts or parts of the total deliverable, it helps to enhance the chance that in the end, final deliverables will meet the quality standards and requirements, which in turn saves time because extensive feedback for reparation and extra repair assignments will be needed less. But there are some points of attention to make it work.

Ways to organize peer feedback (creatively)

For a list with many ideas for individual or group peer feedback, click here. 

For a suggestion about how you can combine the use of exemplars, the creation of criteria together with the students, and organizing peer feedback for an assignment or e.g. lab journals, click [here].

Some general points of attention for creating a constructive peer feedback process: 

  • Decide upon the purpose

    What do you want to achieve? Is it about supporting peers in improving deliverables? Is it (also) to learn the students providing and receiving feedback as skills? Is it a way to enhance their critical thinking? Is it most of all to make them aware of the criteria for success so they can use insights for their own work? Communicate this purpose also with the students.

  • Think carefully about design and organisation

    Wil it be on individual basis? Or groupwise? Otherwise? Will you rotate groups? Will the feedback provided anonymously? Will it be provided once or more times during the course? Etc.   

  • The role of peer feedback in grading

    What role will the peer feedback play in the grading? 

    • Will peers just give feedback or also a an judgement that counts towards the grade?
    • Will the quality of the provided feedback as such be graded? Or will it be checked as pass/fail or "completed"?
    • Do you take into account in the grading what students did with the received feedback? Or ask students to reflect on the feedback and take the reflection into account in the grading? 
  • Provide guidance for the students

    How can you provide guidance for the students? The feedback will be more useful if students know what to pay attention to (criteria) and in what way the feedback should be given. Instruments (rubrics, forms, guiding questions) can assist the feedback process for the students. Also examples of good feedback sentences or a structured approach (feedback, feed up, feed forward), see some nice examples provided by the VU Centre for Teaching & Learning.

  • Learning students how to provide and receive feedback as a skill

    Guidance can also be related to learning them how to provide constructive feedback, with tips like: focus on the work and not on the person, make your comments specific, stay respectful, provide tips for improvements if suitable etc. 
    The usefulness of feedback has also to do with feelings of safety and openness. Cultural aspects and education background may play a role (being used to providing or getting feedback; feeling comfortable in these roles). 
    Preferably allow students to practice, for instance in class. Give examples and model how it can/should be done. 

  • Monitor and Support the process

    Be available when students have questions or conflicts arise. Make sure everyone is participating as planned. 

  • Consider digital tools

    Think about the use(fulness) of digital tools (see further below on this page). It might make organizing and monitoring of the process easier and better manageable for both students and you as a teacher.

Tip: At the end of the course (or assignment or project), have students reflect on the feedback process. How did this help them? Influenced their learning? How can they use this experience for the next time? What could help them next time? This will enhance their feedback literacy. 

Tip: Evaluate afterward to refine the process for the future. What are your impressions of the process? Was the design suitable? Was it efficient? How did your students experience the process? Did it enhance the learning process and the quality of the deliverables or performance?      

Useful sources

Peer feedback tools at the UT

Some digital tools can support the feedback process and make it easier to manage. The UT has licenses for some tools. If you want more information or help implementing these tools, please get in touch with the e-learning specialist at your faculty.  

  • Canvas for peer feedback

    Canvas provides possibilities to organize peer feedback activities, see for instance:  How do I create a peer review assignment?

  • Buddycheck

    The UT has a license for Buddycheck (utwente.nl).  Buddycheck is mostly used for groupwork. Students provide feedback on the performance of peers.

  • Peerpulse

    The UT has a license for Peerpulse. The tool enables teachers to invite students to review each other's work. Both individual and group review options are available. Rubrics can be used to structure the feedback.  

Further reading and sources:

Some interesting external sites about peer feedback:

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