What is peer feedback?
Peer review, or peer feedback, is a two-way process where students review each other’s work and provide constructive feedback. The task could involved students reviewing peer’s work individually, as a group or compare across or within themes or topics.
Students can also review peer’s performance and contribution in group work. See article on Peer assessment: Assessing group performance & contribution for more information.
Why peer feedback?
A well structured peer feedback activity can enhance and positively impact students’ learning. Studies suggest, through the peer feedback process, students can:
- develop important professional transferable professional skills such as communication and decision-making
- learn to make better academic judgements and become self-regulated learners
- engage and understand marking criteria more clearly
- see how their peers approach the same task
- compare and critically reflect on their own work
It also diversifies the ways students receive feedback, traditionally provided only by instructors. Over time, this experience helps students build their feedback literacy – the ability to understand, use, and learn from feedback effectively (Carless & Boud, 2018).
Getting started with FeedbackFruits
Currently, at Durham peer feedback activities can be delivered using the Peer Review tool in FeedbackFruits (available via Blackboard Content Market).
It facilitates both graded and ungraded, individual and group based activities with the options to include reflections and customise workflows.
Practical tips and considerations
Here are some practical tips and considerations when implementing peer feedback activities or peer assessment in your module.
- Provide clear instructions: Explain the purpose, different stages, and deadlines to students in advance so they understand what is expected at each step of the peer review process.
- Support constructive feedback: Offer guidance and practical tips on how to give and receive meaningful feedback. Where possible, share or discuss examples of effective feedback responses to model good practice.
- Close the feedback loop: Consider how students will use the feedback they receive. Will they revise and resubmit their work? Could you facilitate an in-class discussion or a short reflective activity (built into the Peer Review activity) to help them engage with the feedback?
- Monitor engagement: Use the analytics features in FeedbackFruits to track student participation, monitor progress, and identify any issues early.
Accessibility tips
View FeedbackFruits in full screen for a better user experience.
Link to resources
DCAD Resource Bank – Guidance
DCAD Resource Bank – Case Study
DCAD Digital Help Guides
Further reading & references
- Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018) The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43:8, 1315-1325
- Nicol, D., & Macfarlane‐Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice, Studies in Higher Education, 31:2, 199-218
- Nicol, D., Thomson A., & Breslin C. (2014) Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39:1, 102-122
- Kerman, N.T., Banihashem, S.K., Karami, M., Er, E., van Ginkel, S. & Noroozi, O. (2024) Online peer feedback in higher education: A synthesis of the literature. Education and Information Technologies 29, 763–813
- Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., Boud, D. et al. (2018). Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work. High Educ 76, 467–481
A well structured peer feedback activity can enhance and positively impact students’ learning. Studies suggest, through peer feedback, students develop important professional transferable professional skills such as communication and decision-making, learn to make better academic judgements and become self-regulated learners (Kerman et al., 2024; Tai et al., 2018l; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).
It also diversifies the ways students receive feedback (traditionally provided only by instructors) and they get to see how their peers approach the same task. The process can help students engage and understand marking criteria more clearly, and allows them to compare and critically reflect on their own work. (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Over time, this experience helps students build their feedback literacy – the ability to understand, use, and learn from feedback effectively (Carless & Boud, 2018).