DCAD Digital Help Guides

Peer review helps streamline student’s feedback on each other’s work. This video will overview how the tool works, how to configure the activity as a teacher, and how to use peer review as a student.

As a teacher, the home screen of the activity shows student progress, updated with real-time data from students’ submissions and reviews, and then a few different modules. First, the instructions, a space where we can set expectations. Next, the submission step, where students hand in their work. Then comes the given review step, where students leave feedback. And afterwards is the received review step, where that feedback can be read. Lastly, we can find optional modules like grading at the bottom of the activity.

For now, let’s look at how to configure a fresh new peer review. After creating a new activity, head to the Edit button and we’ll be able to set up the activity to our requirements. When in Edit mode, we can change the activity name and write our instructions for students. With the Add Items button, we can attach media such as rubrics or helpful resources. Under the Instructions box are the Student Collaboration Settings. Clicking on this setting to open it, we can determine whether students will work individually or in groups, usually pulled from your LMS. In the next step, we can determine what sort of submissions are required from students. We can change the required number of files to hand in, as well as scheduling deadlines for the submission step, file requirements, choosing allowed file formats, plagiarism check, which works with our Turnitin integration, if it’s being used, anonymity, so submitted work is anonymous to peers, visibility to determine whether students see all submissions or just work that they’ve been allocated to, and a space for optional extra instructions. Next, in the Given Review step, we can configure criteria. Press the Configure button to open a dialogue where we can choose how feedback will be given, with a rubric, a scale rating, as a comment, or some combination of these. If institutional rubrics are in use, we can also find them from this window.

For now, let’s add a rubric, changing criteria, levels, and descriptions as necessary. As a tip, copying and pasting in longer text from an existing rubric can save some time over manually typing everything in. Once the rubric is set up, we can add other review criteria with the Add More Sections button, or we can press Done to continue. With the rest of the settings in step 3, we can change how many peers each student will review, as well as deciding whether students will also complete a self-assessment. With the rest of the settings, we can schedule a deadline for the review step, and determine the allocation method. We can leave it to the algorithm, tweak things manually, or let students decide who they’ll review. This all depends on our class size and setup. Even if we leave allocations automatic as recommended, it is still possible to make manual adjustments here. The other settings for step 3 are Anonymity, which here makes the reviewers anonymous to the student who’s receiving that feedback. Visibility, to choose whether students see their feedback immediately after a deadline or date, never or until manually released. Extra Guidance for students, letting us toggle feedback writing tips, a feedback review checklist, and even our Automated Feedback Coach, an AI-powered tool to give students real-time feedback on their feedback, aiming to improve the quality and usefulness of those peer reviews. There’s also a space for extra instructions on giving feedback in this step.

In the next step, Received Reviews, students read their feedback, and we can toggle the Feedback on Feedback feature to let students rate their received feedback on a scale from 1 to 10. It’s also possible to set a deadline for when students can access their received feedback. Lastly, we come to optional modules such as Grading, which can be configured so that different parts of the activity are worth different amount of points. For example, students’ scores can be based on the ratings they receive from reviewers, or points can be allocated purely on handing in files, giving feedback, and reading it. With the cross in the top right, we can remove grading altogether, if this is, for example, a purely formative activity. Under Grading Options, we can also choose whether students see their percentage grade or just a pass or fail for the activity. And with the plus icon at the bottom, we can add other optional modules, namely an Automated Feedback Step, where students receive AI-generated feedback on their writing, Participation Grading, where students can select their best contributions, and a Reflection Step for students to reflect on the activity. And that’s it for the setup. Once you’re done configuring the activity, don’t forget to press Save up at the top right corner of the screen, and for now, let’s see how to navigate the activity as a student. When entering Peer Review as a student, the instructions will be shown first, as well as any group members down below, if this is a group activity. After carefully reading the instructions, Step 2 allows us to hand in our work for review. For graded activities, an indicator shows how many points are allocated for each step. We can also see how many files are allowed for submission. Selecting a file, or dragging it into this box, will upload the file, after which it may be allocated to a peer for review. Once peers have handed in work, reviews can begin. In Step 3, pressing Start or Continue Reviewing will open this screen, showing the group or individual to whom feedback is being given. Below, we can see the submission, and underneath this, the criteria are visible. Let’s begin by opening the submission and going through the work. Once we’ve seen enough, a part of the document can be selected, after which we can type a comment, and choose a criterion to which this feedback belongs. Make sure to press Post Comment to finish sending that feedback to the recipient, and you can select ratings for each criterion here. And in Video or Audio Submissions, you can use the plus icon on the timeline to write a comment and link that feedback to a specific part of the media file. After all feedback has been given inside a submission, the back arrow can be pressed to display the complete review packet for a final check. Depending on how many reviews have been required by the teacher, there may be more peers or submissions to give feedback on. Press Next to go to the next review, if available. Once all required reviews have been given, we can proceed to the Ratings Overview screen. Here, we can compare and adjust ratings as necessary before pressing Done to finish this step. The progress chips indicate when all reviews are complete. That was how to give feedback, but that’s only half the picture. Reading received feedback takes place in the next step. Once someone’s given feedback on our work, we can see it appear in Step 4 and click on the name of the reviewer or on View Feedback. Scrolling through our review packet, we can view our ratings, read comments and even reply to them as necessary. Once all feedback has been viewed, the progress chip will show as completed. Finally, the bottom are where grades appear, if this is a graded activity and grades have been published by the teacher. And that’s it. Don’t forget that at any time if you need help, get stuck or run into a problem, you can use the blue Support button in the bottom left to chat to our support team at Feedback Foods directly. We’re available 24 hours a day on weekdays and can respond in a matter of minutes to answer your questions, so don’t hesitate to reach out. And for now, good luck with your peer review.