New Methods of Assessment/Group work on chosen technology2

Objectives

To start peer tutoring and own exploration of social media use.

General

Assessment

Who may be described as a "peer"?

Most people would share a common-sense understanding of the terms "peer" and "peer group". Broadly, a peer is someone of the same social standing, while a peer group consists of those of the same status with whom one interacts. When teaching by peers was introduced into higher education in 1951 at the Free University of Berlin, use was made of the practical rule-of-thumb definition of "peer", namely peers were taken to students at a similar age and educational level (Goldschmid and Goldschmid, 1976.) However, the term "peer" is now used to describe a variety of relationships in the context of teaching and learning, and the degree to which students are truly "peers" varies across the range of possible peer tutoring applications. Whitman (1988) classified relationships between tutors and tutees on the basis of the degrees of similarity and difference between partners, and identified several types of peer tutoring used in higher education, some classified as involving "near-peers", others making use of "co-peers", such as partners or work group members, are deemed to be at the same level.

What is peer assessment?

In peer assessment, members of a class grade the work of performance of their peers using relevant criteria. Peer assessment may also involve students giving feedback to peers. As with self-assessment, in peer assessment, marks may be awrded by students or negotiated with teachers. Marks may or may not be used for formal grading purposes. For most practitioners, a key aim of peer assessment is to enhance learning.

Student involvement in assessment can be peripheral or extensive. It can vary from a single simple decision taken by students, such as determining the submission date of assignments, or ascertaining preferred modes of assessment, to involvement in the entire process. Whre students are involved in all stages of assessment, the first thing that needs to be done is for teachers and learners to agree on the criteria by which work or performance will be judged. Sometimes, these criterias are supplied by the teacher. Very infrequently, students supply their own criteria in the absence of the teacher. Once criteria have been identified, self- or peer assessment may then follow.

Nancy Falchikov has been collecting papers on peer assessment for a study which synthesizes results from investigations involving statistical comparisons (Falchikov and Goldfinch, 2000). Quantitative peer assessment studies which compared peer and teacher marks were subjected to meta-analysis, a technique which allows results collected in a wide variety of contexts to be compared. The analysis suggested that peer assessments more closely reseble teacher assessments when students are required to make a global judgements based on clear and explicit criteria, and when students are familiar with, and have some degree of ownership of, the criteria, rather than when grading involves assessing several individual dimensions. Assessment on professional practice appears to be more difficult than assessment of academic products and processes. Peer-teacher similarities were greater in well-designed studies than in poorly designed ones.

(Falchikov, N. 2005. Learnin together. Peer tutoring in higher education. Routledge Falmer. Pages 1-2).

ePortfolio

Further information on the ePortfolios Group is provided in the Moodle Area for this course.

Wiki

During your peer meeting you should choose the wiki for your pilot and also the topic. Plan with who you want to write this wiki, where should it be. How can you assess the learning and working during this wiki writing? Plan assessment process so you can document it and present the results to others. It would be nice if you write an open wiki and can provide link to this wiki at our wikiversity Study Guide.

Blog

Peer Meeting

A peer meeting will take place this week between you and your chosen peer. In order to support this peer learning, a form has been created to enable you to note down yuor comments / findings from your peer discussions.

Your peer meeting is an opportunity for you to discuss with your peer some of the following questions:

What kind of learning and teaching does this kind of an environment support and promote?
What kind of assessment is supported and promoted in the use of Blogs and Blogging software?

If you wish to write your notes directly to wikiarticle, then please do so, creating titles and sub sections as you progress. However, please note that specific time will be set aside to the writing of the Wikiarticle towards the end of the course.

Write Blog post

Following your peer meeting write a reflective blog post (on the blog chosen and created last week) about your peer meeting. Link to your peers blog and comment on their post.

Second Life

See YouTube videos about educational use of SL:

Meet your peer for the first time in Second Life latest now. You can start in EduFinland Island where we have eRappu as a place to meet (eRappu, EduFinland (157, 49, 31)). But the whole SL is available so you can meet in other places too and aim is to visit also other places.

Discuss with your peer: What kind of learning and teaching does this kind of an environment support and promote? What kind of assessment is supported and promoted in virtual worlds? Write your notes directly to wikiarticle. Create a suitable title if there is not yet available such.

Take a snapshot of both of you and bring it into this course wiki under your small group. If you face difficulties take use of your tutor in EduFinland on Fridays.

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