How Peer Evaluation developed in Mutual Discovery

Phase 1, fall 2008

We introduced peer evaluation into the labs and prep process in fall 2008. AnneApplin and I wrote a strawman form to get the process started.

• Basics Followed all the steps? Answered every question? Organization Could you follow the writeup? Exploratory skills Any interesting comments / questions that the student raised...

One of my students (need to look up who and give him credit) challenged the prompts on the form before we even did the first round - it was really rather wonderful, as he was quite right, I was so proud of him, lol. The form did serve to get the process started, for example, see SushantsPeerEvaluationForDevasena

Initial Revision

After the first round of peer evaluations, we got together with the students, and revised that strawman version, producing (October 29, 2008):

Note: Not all of these sections will apply to every lab/assignment that you evaluate.

Preparation

• What did the investigator do to prepare for the lab?

• See if you can come up with at least one specific suggestion to help them improve their preparation in the future.

• How about something that they did particularly well, and/or something you might not have thought about?

Narrative & Method

• Carefully review the investigator's narrative. Can you find any steps they might explain more clearly?

• Any steps they might have missed or errors they might have made?

• Interesting alternatives they might explore?

• If they are stuck somewhere, feel free to give them a hint. Don't give them the answer, but maybe a suggestion, or a resource you found useful.

Presentation

• Was there any of writing that you found particularly effective?

• If the investigator used charts, tables, and graphs to present their results, what one thing could the investigator do to make them more effective? What did you like best about them, and why?

• If the investigator did not use charts, tables, or graphs to present their results, suggest one way that they could to make their report more effective, and why it would make it more effective.

Exploratory skills

• Answers to reflective questions are supposed to help investigators integrate new knowledge gained in the lab, and link it to their existing knowledge. Give the investigator some feedback on how well they are doing so far, as well as some suggestions on how to improve.

• Any other feedback you'd like to give to the investigator?

The whole process of matching, creation, etc., was done by hand, so JennyYang, our wonderful teaching assistant extraordinaire wrote the following instructions:

• Peer evaluation process Find someone to trade peer evaluations with. We will switch each time. If you don't have a partner, contact HilaryHolz or JennyYang. Create a peer evaluation topic, as follows: in the People web, click on the "Start A Topic" link in the navigation area choose your homepage as the Topic parent for the new topic choose the PeerEvaluationTemplate for the template click on 'Create this topic' go to the lab assignment page: add a link to your new peer evaluation topic next to the appropriate lab writeup in the section called 'Lab writeups'. See, for example, VacuumLabFall08. Read the lab writeup and answer the questions in the peer eval - the eval form is a work in progress, feel free to do much more! Make sure you link from your peer eval directly to the lab writeup in question, as well as creating the link on the assignment page.

Reworking our approach in winter 09

Introducing the form

Better instructions

-- HilaryHolz - 11 Apr 2009