Incorporating student peer-review into an introduction to engineering design course

We report on a project to improve the teaching of engineering design at the junior level. Peer review of student work is an integral part of collaborative learning and reform-driven engineering education. Yet successfully implementing this pedagogical technique requires significant amounts of instructor and class time. Furthermore, if adequate formative assessment does not emerge from peer review, the experience may devolve into "busy work" in the eyes of the student. Here, we give early results from an NSF-funded study using Calibrated Peer Review (a Web-delivered, collaborative learning environment) to enhance learning in engineering design