Assessment by peers - an effective learning technique

Assessment by peers is a powerful technique to engage students in active learning, and to make them reflect about their own work. On the other hand, the usual problem with such a technique is that students tend to be excessively lenient towards their colleagues, which threatens to turn the exercise pointless when assessment by peers is used as part of a grade. Thus, the present work describes a successful experience in which assessment by peers was employed as a learning technique in a graduate course in Faculty Development to evaluate oral presentations. A seminar assessment form was developed by the instructors and used to give immediate feedback to the students on their performance. The same form is used by the students to assess their peers. This assessment by peers is not used by the instructors to compose the grades on the course, but as a tool to enhance awareness of the students to the quality of their own work. It was verified that the quality of the seminars improved faster when peer assessment was employed, and that the assessment by the students approached the assessment by the instructors as the course progressed.