evaluation

Overview of Canvas Peer Review for Group Work Evaluation

We have discussed peer review in Carmen/Canvas before both on this blog and in previous Flash Friday presentations.  If you would like to catch up on the most recent Flash Friday on Peer Review, click here.  This post will go over some details and instructions for using the Canvas Peer Review tool to allow your students to evaluate one another’s performance in group work.

Peer Review in Canvas was designed to allow students to review work submitted by peers, such as research papers and websites.  If you are interested in using Canvas for this type of peer review, check out this post on creating peer reviews and this post on viewing peer review comments.  Also note that there are other ways of getting peer review feedback, including Qualtrics surveys and having students use email.  Whatever method you decide on, the College of Nursing IT team can help you design and implement a peer review assignment.

Peer Reviews for Group Work

For a step-by-step guide to creating your own group work peer evaluation assignment, download this presentation: Using Canvas Peer Review for Group Peer Evaluations-1qlkjnb.

Hints and Tips

  • Peer reviews do not receive a grade—if you want to give a grade for how well a student peer reviewed another student, you have to create a separate (no submission) assignment in Canvas to allot grades.
    • Alternatively, the instructor can give a grade on the assignment being reviewed and call that the peer review grade—this does get confusing and will not work if you have two rubrics involved.
    • Grading completion of peer review vs. grading students’ work vs. grading students’ feedback can be confusing.  Feel free to consult IT about this!
  • Who can see the comments in a peer review?  Instructors and the student being reviewed can see all comments on their submission or performance. Peer reviewers can only see their own comments–the comments they made and the comments addressed directly to them.  Students cannot see comments made by students to other students. The “test student” in Canvas cannot complete peer reviews.
  • Saved by the Bell – Clicking the “bell” symbol next to a student’s name who has not yet completed a peer review sends an email to the student to complete the review along with a link to the review they need to complete. This is handy when students state they cannot find their peer review assignment. Peer reviews go directly to the person getting the review—instructors cannot read over or approve them beforehand
  • When “Saved by the Bell” doesn’t work—instructors can delete the assigned peer review and re-assign it. This will erase all record of the first peer review attempt.
  • When assigning peer reviews for evaluation of group members, there is no shortcut to have the group members evaluate each other— the instructor must manually add each student (this can be tedious).
  • Dates get wonky in peer reviews for performance rather than a submission (“due date” is really “start date”)— you will need to explain this to students so they understand that this will look like an overdue assignment. Also, changing the due dates or available dates after publishing the assignment may result in student difficulty in viewing and completing peer reviews.
  • There is no “self-review” option.  If you want your students reviewing their own work, you’ll have to do this separately or on a different platform.
    • Workaround: you could have students leave a comment on their own peer review submission page.
  • Students may be able to go back in and change rubric scores after the review period, but they cannot edit or delete comments.

If you would like help setting up a peer-to-peer evaluation of group work, please contact us at CON-IT@osu.edu

Don’t wait until end-of-semester; survey your students now!

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Mid-semester is a great time to check in with students to gauge their perceptions of what is working in our courses and what isn’t. Whether you teach face-to-face or online, a midterm survey in Carmen is a good way to find out if your students are struggling with any of the course content.

Margie Neidecker has an excellent midterm survey for her MACPR online program, and she has graciously agreed to share it her CON colleagues. If you are interested in adding a midterm survey to your Carmen course, just let us know. The results of the survey will be available in Carmen only to you and any other person who has the role of instructor in your course.

To get a midterm survey in your course:

  1. Email CON-InformationTechnology@osu.edu.
  2. Tell us which course(s) to which you want the survey added. Include the course name and class number as it appears in Carmen.
  3. Tell us what date the survey should open and what date it should close.
  4. Tell us if you want any questions added, edited, or deleted from the survey.

We will:

  1. Put a midterm survey in your Carmen course.
  2. Set it to open and close for students on the dates you specify.
  3. Post an announcement on your course home page asking the students to complete the survey.

Take advantage of this simple strategy and instructional best practice, and aim toward better end-of-term evaluations!

The questions on the survey template are below. You are welcome to edit the survey to fit your own needs after it is imported into your course.

Question 1

For each of the following statements, please select the answer that best corresponds to your opinion about the course.

(Students will respond to the following questions on a scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.)

1

   The course materials are well organized and easy to navigate.

2

   The lectures are presented in a clear and effective manner.

3

   The readings complement the topic for that module and help me understand lecture material.

4

   I am learning what I expected to learn from this class.

5

   I am getting the feedback and/or support I need to be successful in this course.

6

   I find the class very difficult.

7

   I would recommend this class to someone else.

Question 2

Approximately how many hours per week do you spend on this class?

A) 1-3 hours
B) 4-6 hours
C) 7-9 hours
D) 10-12 hours
E) More than 12 hours

Question 3

Approximately how much of the reading that has been assigned so far have you completed?

A) 100%
B) 90%
C) 75%
D) 50%
E) Less than 50%

Question 4

What do you like or find most useful about this course? What is the best thing about it for you?

Question 5

How could this course be improved?

Question 6

What concerns or questions do you have related to this course that you have not already expressed? Please provide any additional comments you would like to make here.