Using Student-student Feedback to Improve Term Projects and Project Presentations

Typically, most of the feedback to the students in a class is from the grader or instructor. However, enhanced student-student interactions and collaboration are known to improve student motivation and student learning. In this paper, student-student feedback exercises on term projects in the form of student review of reports and in-class cafe discussions in a graduate heat transfer class are described. Students were assigned individual projects and three-student `cafe´ groups were formed. Each student submitted a mid-term report, sent it to the other students in the group for their review. Towards the end of the semester, an in-class `cafe´ discussion session was implemented. The session involved each student presenting his or her project to the others in the group in turn. The instructor also helped facilitate the discussion. An end-of-semester assessment revealed that almost all students wanted it to be continued in the upcoming semesters