http://wms.bath.ac.uk/live/LTEO/SSS1.wmv

We had a fine mix of educators present from a diverse range of disciplines (from physiotherapy to languages to maths), and they asked all the right questions plus some I wasn’t expecting too

Apart from talking about the Moodle workshop module itself and what it offers, we also got down to the nitty-gritty of how best to introduce students to peer assessment, and how to encourage them to take part. We considered the pros and cons of making peer assessment mandatory and/or awarding such an activity a proportion of the summative grade.

We also talked about what expectations we might have of the outcome of a first stab at peer assessment, and how we might present these to students, and we also talked about the levels of tutor support and guidance that might be appropriate in different circumstances.

It was especially interesting to hear from Sian Coxall (School for Health) about an online activity the School are piloting with their distance learners where students work together to develop their own criteria for a low-stakes assessment. It was also great to hear from Keith Graham, a physiotherapist in the Department of Sports Development, about some face-to-face peer-assessment and role-play work he’s been involved with.

There was quite a lot of interest in setting up a special interest group within the University for those interested in innovative assessment practices; this is something Andy Ramsden and I have discussed before so watch this space…

At the end of the seminar we shared ideas for how we might use peer assessment in our own contexts; these included getting peer feedback on a range of projects and assignment drafts prior to final submission, low-stakes peer assessment of presentations in the School for Health, assessment of videos of student performance in Physiotherapy, peer assessment of students’ websites on Maths topics, and as an induction activity for Masters’ level programmes.

All in all I personally found it a very useful session and I hope all the participants did too Please don’t let the conversation stop here; regardless of whether you were there today, please leave a comment with any questions, experiences or ideas you’d care to share!