Peer Reviews

WHAT ARE PEER REVIEWS?

It is difficult to improve if someone doesn't know how their actions impact others and objectives. The senior design program has grades and feedback from advisors to provide students with information on how they are doing and what they can improve on, but within the senior design program, students are most regularly interacting with the other peers on their team.

Peer reviews/evaluations are a feedback mechanism for improving performance of those who are struggling and reinforcing the behaviors of those who go above and beyond. Used correctly, peer reviews are an opportunity for students to provide feedback that can improve themselves and their teammates.

HOW DO PEER REVIEWS WORK?

Students will receive a survey at certain intervals throughout the program where they can provide evaluations of themselves and their teammates. The questions on a peer review will generally ask about the performance of a team member with respect to technical performance and teamwork/social performance. 

The data from the peer review is provided to the project advisor of the team. The project advisor can then use that information to provide feedback directly to students who may be struggling or are worthy of praise. The project advisor may also incorporate this feedback into their evaluation of a student for the course if it should align with their other experiences. 

Project advisors and administration may keep this feedback anonymized such that the focus is on improvement and students have the opportunity to learn about how to provide good feedback.

Additional guidance on feedback and peer reviews can be found here: Feedback and Peer Reviews