Peer feedback

Students sitting together in a group
Two students talking over a book
Three students with a male student talking to the other two

Peer feedback happens when students or peers provide each other with feedback on their products, assignments, or work. Peer feedback can be facilitated individually or in groups, privately or publicly, and can be a part of a mandatory assignment or voluntary. Facilitating peer feedback can be difficult, and it’s therefore important that you plan and design your peer feedback activity carefully – it might also take some iterations because it works exactly how you planned, but it will be worth the while. Research shows that providing and receiving feedback has a significant impact on student learning since being exposed to other ways of approaching problems and verbalizing any misconceptions or critical issues can increase each students’ understanding and comprehension of content.

Peer feedback activities

  • Peer feedback on presentations

Ask students to give each other feedback on their presentations, while in class. Give the students some clear guidelines for what they should provide feedback on and how it can be communicated. Students prefer having an expert – such as the instructor – present to monitor their feedback, so make yourself available and follow up with your own observations.

  • Opponent groups

Appoint each group an opponent group, and ask the students to point out 2-3 areas they would like feedback on. Set a class or day aside for a full opponent seminar, observe the students giving each other feedback and follow up with any comments or feedback if necessary.

  • Peer feedback on assignments

In FeedbackFruits Peer Review tool, all assignments are automatically distributed and rotated among students. This allows for students to provide feedback to each other’s assignments while being anonymous (it’s also possible to disable anonymity) and doing it at their own pace within a set deadline. The instructor provides rubrics and feedback questions that help guide the students towards being more specific in their feedback, while also being able to reflect on their own products.

Tools for supporting peer feedback

In FeedbackFruits Peer Review tool, students can give each other feedback, either individually or in groups.

In Office365, students can comment on each other’s written products in apps such as Word, PowerPoint or Excel.

Resources
Carless, D. & Boud, D. (2018) The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. In: Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. (43:8). pp. 1315-1325.

Müllen, R. von. (2019). DUT Guide: Peer-Feedback. Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 14(27), 188–196.

Peer feedback in teaching, AU Educate: https://educate.au.dk/en/focus-areas/peer-feedback-in-teaching