Effective Learning through Peer Assessment Using Peergrade Tool

Assignments, reports and presentations are an important assessment instrument for evaluation of learning. There are many problems with using student assignments and presentations as assessment instrument. This paper addresses some of these problems related to such assessment instruments which require learners to study certain topic and give presentations and reports in the classroom. Peer assessment in such a scenario can play an important role and improve the overall effectiveness of learning. In peer assessment a learner evaluates work of other peers. The next question was how to use peer assessment in an effective manner. The authors experimented with peer assessment of such learners' assignments and presentations using tool Peergrade. The novelty with Peergrade tool is that the entire process of learners' assignment submission, peer assessment, feedback to peers, reviews and assessment reports for teacher is completely automated. The teacher has complete flexibility in configuration of the entire process of peer assessment. The efficacy of peer assessment using Peergrade tool was evaluated using metrics like effectiveness, efficiency, attractiveness and accessibility. The authors conducted survey and interviews of learners to understand effectiveness. Almost 92% learners agreed that feedback provided by their peers was useful to them. The authors plan to experiment with Peergrade tool further for peer nominations, peer ratings, and peer rankings as part of their future work.