In Self and Peer Assessment, an instructor poses a question (or multiple questions) for students to answer.   Questions can be related to essays and papers, case studies, journals and presentations.  After students submit their work and the submission date has expired, they can evaluate their own work and the work of their classmates (within an established evaluation timeline) against grading criteria the instructor has provided.  Grading criteria can include word count, points addressed, citations included, definitions included, arguments supported, proper grammar and spelling, etc. (similar to using a grading rubric).  Self and Peer Assessment items can include multiple criterion as well as model responses.  Self-evaluation is optional, and evaluations can also be set up anonymously (students will not know whose work they are evaluating, but the instructor will). 

Once students self- and peer-evaluate, the students’ scores are averaged and points are awarded for each student based on the point value assigned to each criteria.  That data can be included in Grade Center calculations. Since the instructor can view the evaluations provided by one student to another student, the instructor can address any areas of weakness in the evaluations per student.  Instructors can use this type of assessment to help students learn how to critique their own and others’ work, giving students opportunities to hone their critical thinking skills.  Students can learn from the constructive feedback provided by their peers.  Peer assessment can be used for student presentations, problem solving, reports and essays, works cited and bibliographies, as well as practical/lab work.

Self and Peer Assessment is a multi-phased process. 

·         Phase One - an instructor creates a new assessment.  

·         Phase Two - an instructor adds assessment questions. 

·         Phase Three - an instructor adds the evaluation criteria for each question that the students will answer.  

·         Phase Four - the assessment is open to students and they submit their responses. 

·         Phase Five - the students will evaluate their own and others’ work. 

·         Phase Six - an instructor can view overall results and choose to transfer the data to the Grade Center.