Introduction
In this article we'll 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, check out these articles:
Tool In Action
How this article is structured
Setting up an activity now follows three stages, shown in the bar at the top of the activity whenever you're in edit mode:
Build activity — get an overview of your activity and add or remove steps.
Edit steps — configure each step one at a time (instructions, hand-in, feedback criteria, anonymity, visibility, and how students collaborate on that step).
Setup activity — set what applies to the whole activity: deadlines, grade weighting, and groups.
This article follows that same order. Everything below describes what you can configure before the activity is published — students cannot access the activity at this stage. You can still edit some settings after publishing; however, once students start making progress, certain options lock to protect their work and data. Wherever that applies, we'll note it.
Note: When you open a published activity, you'll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to setup, click Edit in the upper-left corner. See the Active Assignment article.
Accessibility
We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners. To read more, see Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.
Stage 1 — Build activity
This is your starting point. Here you see every step in the activity in order and can shape the activity before configuring the detail.
A default Peer Review activity contains:
Instructions
Hand in
Give feedback
Read received feedback
Adding steps. Use the learning-steps panel to add optional steps such as Reflection, Feedback-on-Feedback, Automated Feedback, Participation Grading, or a Non-FeedbackFruits step. Click a step to add it, or drag it into the activity. Hovering over a step reveals the sub-steps it includes.
When your steps are in place, move to Edit steps to configure each one.
Stage 2 — Edit steps
Here you set up the activity step by step. Each step shows its own settings, and a Student preview so you can see what learners will see. Collaboration settings now live on the step they affect, so it's clear what each choice applies to.
Step 1: Instructions
Write the instructions students see when they open the activity. Type directly into the instructions field; the student preview updates alongside.
Step 2: Hand in
Configure how and what students submit.
Students hand in as — choose Individual or Group. This is the hand-in section of student collaboration (see the Collaboration options reference for how it combines with reviewing).
Required files — set how many files students must hand in: Minimum, Between, or Exactly a chosen number. Students can always hand in more than required. Note: students won't be assigned a peer to review if they submit fewer files than required.
Allowed file formats — enable the file types students may upload: Document, Video, Website, Image, Audio, Other. Students can't upload types you disable. See supported file types. Note: embedded audio/video inside documents and slideshows can't be played in FeedbackFruits.
Submitter anonymity — when on, student contributions are anonymous to each other; teachers can always see who is who.
Advanced settings (Hand in):
Plagiarism check — if your institution has opted into the Turnitin integration, toggle the check here. See the Turnitin FAQ.
Visibility of hand-ins — control who can see submissions, e.g. Only the allocated reviewer(s).
Optional instructions for this step — add specific hand-in guidance (e.g. desired font, line spacing, or file naming: "Please include your student number in the file name.").
About the hand-in deadline. The deadline itself is set later, in Setup activity → Deadlines. A few behaviours are still worth knowing here: when the hand-in deadline passes, students are assigned a peer's or group's work to review; if no deadline is set, allocation begins once two students have handed in (best for live sessions). You can also allow late hand-ins, grant individual extensions, and let students review even if they haven't submitted (note this means some students receive more reviews than others). See How are Peers Assigned?.
Step 3: Give feedback
Set how students review each other and what guides them
Students give feedback as — An individual or A group. This is the review section of student collaboration.
Number of peers to review — set how many peers/groups each student reviews, or choose All peers. Reviewing multiple peers gives students a broader view and gives each submission more nuanced feedback. (Be mindful of workload when choosing All.)
Students can give feedback to — choose the pool reviewers are drawn from: anyone in the activity, within their own group, or outside their group. Combined with the hand-in choice above, this produces the collaboration setups described in the reference section.
Criteria — the criteria that guide students as they give feedback. Click Edit to add, edit, or delete criteria. See How to set up feedback criteria.
When do students see their feedback — set visibility to Immediately, after the review deadline, after a certain date, or Never (release manually).
Advanced settings (Give feedback):
Self-assessment — students review their own work before reviewing peers.
AI coach — students receive AI-powered, real-time feedback to improve their reviews.
Feedback writing tips — one tip shown at a time as students write, to raise feedback quality.
Review checklist — a checklist shown during reviewing to help students reflect on how they framed their feedback.
Assign students from — set which group set allocations are drawn from (e.g. Same group set). For allocation detail, see How are Peers Assigned?.
Optional instructions for this step — add specific review guidance.
Reviewer anonymity is set per step: when enabled, reviewers are anonymous, though reviewers still see the name of the peer they're reviewing, and teachers can always see the reviewer. See Good to know: Anonymity.
Step 4: Read received feedback
Toggle Feedback on feedback so students rate the reviews they received (e.g. usefulness on a 1–10 scale). The deadline for reading received feedback is set in Setup activity → Deadlines.
Step 5: Reflection (optional)
If you added a Reflection step in Build activity, configure it here: set the required reflection length (1-5,000 words) and enable the Reflection Coach (AI-powered, real-time guidance) under the step's settings. To remove the step, delete it from Build activity.
Stage 3 — Setup activity
The final stage gathers the settings that apply to the whole activity — the ones you'll most often revisit. On the left you keep the step overview; on the right you set activity-wide options.
Activity settings — title, description, and the Group activity toggle.
Deadlines
Enable Steps have start and end dates, then set start/end dates per step in one place — hand-in deadline, review deadline, and read-received-feedback deadline all live here. The date picker offers quick options (e.g. previous step ends, 1 day after, 1 week after) as well as a calendar. Leaving a deadline blank keeps that step open indefinitely.
Grade weighting
Enable Steps have grade weighting to assign a weight to each step (e.g. hand-in, giving feedback, reflection). Weights must total 100% — if they don't, you'll see a prompt to adjust. Click configure to customise grading criteria and publish grades as a percentage or pass/fail.
Groups
Select the group set for this activity and choose which groups/sections participate. Where your LMS supports it, sync sections and groups directly. For configuring groups inside Blackboard, Brightspace, or Canvas, see this article; to create groups on the platform, see this article.
Reminder: collaboration options (hand-in and review) must be set before students participate. Once a student makes progress, those configurations can't be changed.
When everything looks right, Save and publish.
Collaboration options reference
Student collaboration is configured in two places:
- Step 2: Hand in – Choose whether students submit individually or as a group.
- Step 3: Give feedback – Choose how students are assigned to review submissions.
These two settings determine how students collaborate throughout the activity. Configure them before students begin participating, as these settings cannot be changed once a student has made progress.
| Hand in | Available review options |
|---|---|
| Individually | • Individually • Within groups • Outside of their group |
| As a group | • As a group • Individually (same work per group member) |
Note: Not all review options are available for every hand-in configuration.
- If students hand in individually, the As a group and Individually (same work per group member) review options are unavailable.
- If students hand in as a group, the Within groups and Outside of their group review options are unavailable.
| # | Combination | Use it when… | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hand in individually, review individually | You want students to submit individually and be assigned one or more random peers who also handed in. | Class of 20, all submit 2 documents; each student receives 2 submissions to review. |
| 2 | Hand in individually, review within groups | You want individual submissions but smaller groups to distribute reviews. | Class of 20 split into 5 groups of 4; each writes a report individually; each reviews someone else in their group. |
| 3 | Hand in individually, review outside of their group | You want individual submissions reviewed by peers outside the student's own group. | 4 groups of 5; each student writes their own report; each reviews a report from a different group. |
| 4 | Hand in as a group, review individually | A group works collaboratively on one submission, then all students review individually. | 5 groups of 4 each submit one assignment; all 20 students get a random allocation from other groups. |
| 5 | Hand in as a group, review as a group | Groups submit together and review together; any member submits on the group's behalf. | 5 groups of 4; each submits collectively; the group discusses each assigned submission and one member submits the review. |
| 6 | Hand in as a group, review individually (same work per group member) | Groups submit together, but each member reviews the same assigned group individually. | 5 groups of 4; each submits collectively; every member of a group reviews the same group's submission and submits feedback individually. |
Good to know: Anonymity
If anonymity is enabled, students work under a pseudonym, but the teacher can always see the real student name.
[Fig. 12 — Anonymity enabled: 35672613989266] [Fig. 13 — Anonymity revealed to teachers: 35672619805842]