Using PeerMark

Instructors can create and manage PeerMark assignments that allow students to read, review and evaluate one or more papers submitted by their coursemates.

Some of the key features of PeerMark include:

• students can be paired with single or multiple reviewers, either automatically (randomly), manually by the instructor, or self-selected by the student
• non-submitting students can be included or excluded from reviewing papers
• students can write reviews by responding to free response or scale questions set by the instructor
• instructors can add libraries of questions for easy reuse which can be edited, deleted or reordered

It is recommended that you do NOT create an anonymous (Turnitin) inbox:

• this helps you deal with any unexpected issues that may arise
• this prevents issues when using a screen reader
• you can still hide the identity of the author of a submission from the reviewer(s) whilst they are reviewing it

It is recommended that you set 'Students can review from' 24 hours (possibly longer) after the submission deadline:

• this is in order that late submissions will still be included in the review process
• the academic can decide separately how to deal with late submissions
• you will need to think ahead about how you accommodate those students with an extension as PeerMark does not allow for this (see 'How do I plan the sequence of activities for peer review (in PeerMark)?' below)

There is no syncing of grades between PeerMark and the Gradebook:

• the overall ‘grade’ in PeerMark will need to be copied and pasted into the Gradebook by the instructor

It is recommended that you set ‘Peer feedback available from’ after the time set for ‘Student Can Review From’:  

• this helps you deal with any unexpected issues that may arise
• once passed, the date for ‘Peer feedback available from’ cannot be changed

PeerMark assumes all students will be involved but there are ways to include/exclude individuals or groups of students:

• you can filter using pre-existing Learn Groups within the Turnitin assignment, but this may not be reliable and not be synced with Learn
• you can use adaptive release (in Learn) to make the Turnitin assignment visible only to those students taking part in the PeerMark activity (but you will also need to exclude those students not taking part, within the inbox)
• you can allocate reviewers manually within the distribution tab to include/exclude individual students

When a student completes the questions/criteria they can 'Save as a draft' and then 'Submit', but they can no longer re-submit.  

Planning for students to submit work, review one another's work, and share feedback, takes planning and coordination. This is particularly important if you need to anticipate students submitting work for review after the deadline (say, if they have been given an extension).

Having a timeline should help you to plan ahead to decide the dates when each part of the process should start and end. We would also recommend sharing the timeline you create with all the staff involved and your students so that they can see what is expected of them and when.