Introduction

In this article we will walk you through how to set up Peer Review from the perspective of a teacher.

If you’d like more information on how this tool works, you can check out other articles here:

• Peer Review: For Teachers (Active Assignment)

• Peer Review: For Students

• Peer Review: Overview

   

Tool In Action

How this article is structured

This article walks you through the steps of an Peer Review activity, following the same flow as the tool itself. It will describe the process of setting up the assignment. This refers to what you can configure before the assignment is published, such as instructions, settings, deadlines, grouping, and grading rules. Students cannot access the activity at this stage. You can still edit some settings after publishing; however, once students start making progress, certain options may be locked to protect their work and data. Wherever this applies, the article will clearly note it.

Note: When you open a published activity, you’ll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to the setup view after publishing, click Edit in the upper-left corner of the activity.
You can see the article about the Active Assignment view of this tool here.

Accessibility

We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners - to read more about accessibility in FeedbackFruits tools, check this article: Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.

Step 1: Instructions

Here, you can see the instructions written when setting up the assignment. These can be changed by clicking on edit on the top right corner of the screen.

Collaboration Options:

Directly underneath the instructions, you can select options for student collaboration.

When selecting student collaboration options, there are several configurations to choose from. Please bear in mind that collaboration options need to be selected before students participate in the assignment - once a student makes progress, the configurations can't be updated.

Options for students hand in:

1. Individually

2. As a group

Options for students evaluate:

1. Individually. Students will individually get assigned to anyone.

2. Within groups. Students individually get assigned someone within their group. (Disabled if ‘as a group’ option for hand in is chosen).

3. Outside of their group. Students individually get assigned to someone, not in their group. (Disabled if ‘as a group’ option for hand in is chosen).

4. As a group. Group gets assigned to review another group. After the group comes to agreement, any member can submit the review on behalf of the group. (Disabled if ‘individually’ option for hand in is chosen).

5. Individually, same work per group member. Each member of a group gets assigned to review the same group. Reviews are made individually. (Disabled if ‘individually’ option for hand in is chosen).

This will allow for the following combinations:

1. Hand in work individually, review individually
   Use this option if you want your students to individually hand in their assignment and then be assigned the work of one or more random peers who have also handed in work for this assignment.

   Use case: In a class of 20 students, all students are required to submit 2 documents. Each student will receive 2 submissions from (an)other student(s) to review.

2. Hand in work individually, review within groups
   Use this option if you want your students to individually hand in their assignment and want to use smaller groups to distribute the reviews.

   Use case: you have a class of 20 students and split them into 5 groups. Each group is assigned a topic to write a report on - one topic per group. Within the group of 4 people, each person individually submits their reports. At the point of review, each person in the group is assigned someone else in their group to review.

3. Hand in work individually, review outside of their groups

   Use this option if you want students to individually hand in their assignments and get assigned to review the work of one or more peers outside their own group.

   Use case: In a class of 4 groups with 5 students each, each group is assigned a topic to write a report on. Each of the 5 students within the group create their own report individually. When being assigned work to provide feedback on, each student is given a report written by a student from a different group.

4. Hand in work as group, review individually
   Use this option if you would like a group of students to work collaboratively on the same assignment.

   Use case: Students work in 5 groups of 4 on the assignment. Each group submits their assignment as a collective (1 assignment submission per group). All 20 students receive a random allocation from other groups to review.

5. Hand in work as group, review as a group

   Use this option if you want students to submit their work as a group. After reaching an agreement, any member can submit the review on behalf of the group, and the group will then review submissions together.

   Use case: You have 5 groups, each with 4 students. All group members collaborate on their initial submission and submit one assignment collectively. When reviewing, the group discusses the assigned submission together, and any member can submit the review on behalf of the group.

6. Hand in work as group, individually, same work per group member

   Use this option if you want students to submit their work as a group. Each member of a group to be assigned the same group for review, with reviews completed individually.

   Use case: You have 5 groups, each with 4 students. All group members collaborate on their initial submission and submit one assignment collectively. When reviewing, each member of a group is assigned the same group's submission to review and submits their feedback individually.

For more information on configuring groups when using FeedbackFruits within Blackboard, Brightspace or Canvas, click here. If it's not possible to sync the groups within your LMS or if you are using the platform, you can find more information about how to create groups here.

Step 2: Submissions

When creating your assignment, you can configure submission options for your students.

Required number of files to hand in: Set the amount of files that students are required to hand in. Note that students will not be assigned to a peer for review if they submit fewer files than required. The submission requirement can be set at exactly, minimum or between your chosen amount. Students can always hand in more files than required.

Scheduling deadlines: Set the hand-in deadline. Students have to upload their work before this deadline. When this deadline has passed, students will be assigned work of a peer or group to review. When no deadline is set in this step, students are assigned work to review when 2 students have handed in. Click here for an explanation about how peers are assigned. When not setting a deadline there is a chance that the allocations cannot be distributed equally, therefore setting no deadline works best in a live feedback session.

If a deadline for submission has been set for the students, you have the option to allow for students to hand in after the submission deadline has passed. Simply enable this option (as shown on the screenshot below), and students will be able to hand in after the submission deadline as well. Keep in mind that enabling this option will not affect the student analytics - you will still be able to see if students have submitted on time or not.

If a closing date is specified, you can also grant students an extension to make a post after the deadline. By selecting this option, you can specify which students will regain access to this step and assign them a new deadline of your choosing.

Additionally, you can also allow students to participate in the review process even if they haven’t submitted their own work by enabling this option. However, this would mean that some students will receive more reviews than others.

File requirements: Check the box next to the file type you want your students to hand in. Students will not be able to upload file types to you deselect. For an overview of which formats are supported for each file type, click here.

Note: Embedded audio and video in documents and slideshows cannot be played in FeedbackFruits.

Plagiarism check: If your institution has opted into our Turnitin integration, you can select here whether the check should be toggled on or off. You can read more information here: Turnitin FAQ

Anonymity: The students who review the assignments won't be able to know the name of the peer they are reviewing.

Guiding students (optional): If you have specific hand-in instructions for your students (such as the desired font, line spacing, naming the file, etc.) fill them in here. Example: Please name your student number in the file-name. Upload both your essay and the slides you will use when presenting about your essay.

Step 3: Given Reviews

In this step, you can specify criteria to help guide students as they give feedback. Click configure to edit, add, or delete criteria. Click here for a detailed guide on setting criteria.

Required number of peers to review: Specify how many peers/groups each student has to review. Reviewing multiple peers is good practice, giving students a broader view of how their peers did in the assignment. At the same time, it means that students get reviewed by several peers, giving a better, more nuanced view of their own efforts.

Self-assessment: Students are able to review their own work before reviewing their peers.

Scheduling deadlines: Set the deadline for giving feedback. Note that reviewers will not be able to view or edit their reviews after this deadline passes. Leave the deadline blank to allow reviewers to view and/or edit their feedback indefinitely.

Allocations: By clicking Change, you can choose your preferred allocation method. If set to "All", students will be required to review every member of their group. Be mindful of the student workload when using this setting.

For more details on how allocation works, please visit: Peer Review: How are Peers Assigned?

Anonymity Enabling this option will make reviewers anonymous. Reviewers will still see the name of the peer they are reviewing. Teachers can also see the name of the reviewer.

Visibility Choose when the students can see their feedback. You can set this to immediately, after the review deadline, after a certain date or never (release manually).

Guiding students (optional): If you have specific review instructions for your students, fill them in here.

Here, you can also enable Feedback writing tips, which automatically display one tip at a time as students write feedback. Additionally, there's a Review checklist that is shown to students during the review process, and a Feedback coach that provides AI-powered, real-time feedback to help students improve their reviews.

Step 4: Received Reviews

In this step, you can toggle whether or not students rate their reviewer feedback (also known as feedback on feedback) and set a deadline by when the student should have read all of their received reviews.

Step 5: Reflect on Activity (optional)

In this step, you can enable whether or not students should reflect on their assignment. To add a reflection step, please scroll down to the bottom of the assignment in edit mode and click on the plus (+) button in the purple circle to view available learning steps to add.

When setting up the reflections step, you can specify the required length of the written reflection, with a minimum of 1 word and a maximum of 5000 words. You can also set a deadline for when students must complete their reflection and enable features like the Reflection Coach, which provides AI-powered, real-time feedback to help students improve their reflections. This option is available under the Guiding Students section.

However, please note that this step is optional. If you decide that student reflections are unnecessary, you can remove this step by clicking the X button in the top right corner.

Grading

You can add grading criteria to your assignment by clicking on the purple plus (+) button on the bottom left. You can configure how many points you want to give to each process of the assignment and whether the grade should be published as a percentage or pass/fail.

By clicking configure, you can customize your grading criteria and toggle certain parameters on or off depending on the needs of the particular assignment you're setting up:

Good to Know

Anonymity

If anonymity is enabled, the students work under a pseudonym, but the teacher can always see the student name.

Fig 45: Anonymity enabled