Knight, Linda V., and Theresa A. Steinbach. "Adapting Peer Review to an Online Course: An Exploratory Case Study." Journal of Information Technology Education 10 (2011): 81-100. Education Research Complete. Web. 5 June 2014.
This is an exploratory case study done by researchers in Information Technology (IT). In order to study the operational aspects of implementing peer review in an online classroom versus a traditional classroom, they studied the process in two sections of the same course,one section online and one section in a traditional face to face classroom. The class was an introductory level IT course that taught students the basics of creating multimedia websites. Students had to create websites and use peer feedback in order to improve their design and accessibility. The course instructor even implemented peer review as part of the overall grade. Peer review done in the classroom was blind, and the students reviewed websites that were in different sections.
The researchers concluded that overall, the implementation of peer review online was more challenging and time consuming than in a traditional classroom. In the face to face classroom, students were assigned different websites and used pen and paper to complete peer review rubrics. Students could hand in the rubrics that could then be distributed to the reviewees. Students in the online sections used kwiksurvey.com, then the professor had to erase all identifying information from the survey data and distribute, through email, to the students. The researchers suggested that software development could make several steps in the peer review process online much less complicated.
This article could be useful for online instructors because this article focuses on the steps in took to implement an online review process, and what struggles they faced. It also provides some pragmatic suggestions in creating an online peer review process: planning ahead, knowing the kind of peer review process you want to implement, and other tips. it also provides the rubric used in the course. The way in which these researchers implement peer review in the classroom and online seems very complicated and time-consuming, however.For the researchers, a blind peer review as important because they felt it provided more honest reviews. One can see the importance of having a peer that can honestly evaluate the design and usability of a website. The insistence on reviewer anonymity and the use of surveys made the process more complicated, so other software currently available may be much more useful in providing peer reviews. Making peer reviews blind is another aspect that can slow down the process because author data is embedded in different software.
Peer review, even in a f2f classroom is a challenge for me to accomplish with success. While I stress it’s importance and do think it helps students see other’s writing and look at writing with new eyes, I hear more from my online students that they don’t feel comfortable commenting on papers, as they don’t have self-confidence in their own writing. I am wondering if it’s more prevalent in an online environment to have students question themselves through the process since they don’t know each other as well…hmmm…another research possibility?
ReplyDeleteIn the case of Knight and Steinbach’s article, the anonymity and set-up of the peer reviews sounded like logistics took more time than other methods might take. In a writing classroom, I think the anonymity might alienate the reader by not even being able to connect with the person who made the comment. I have students exchange papers from a discussion area – post your paper, claim a paper, make comments, use a general question/rubric and return to the classroom. Sometimes students pair off in subsequent reviews, so they start to build a sense of community just through the sharing.
I’m looking a peer-review tool (VoiceThread) that I’m arguing could be used as a means of class feedback on a paper, reading, etc…as it allows for audio/video threads to be connected and read by a class.