Students%20engaging%20in%20online%20peer%20review:%20seen%20from%20a%20national%20or%20international%20perspective

1
Students engaging in online peer review seen
from a national or international perspective

• Janice Whatley
• Elena Zaitseva
• Danuta Zakrzewska

2
Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Peer review activities
• Cases
• Findings
• Conclusions

3
Introduction

• Developing transferable skills
• Effective communication skills,
• An ability to negotiate existing and create new
  knowledge,
• Critically evaluate information resources or a
  product.
• An online collaborative activity is one means of
  achieving these outcomes.

4
Peer Review Activities

• Students collaborate to review the work of
  another person or team of students
• Provide evaluative feedback
• Encourage reflection and criticism
• Important workplace skill
• The author receives help to improve the product
• The evaluators have practice in giving considered
  and justified feedback.

5
Online Peer Review

• Alternative perspectives from people outside
  their circle of colleagues, with different
  knowledge and expertise
• Same or different institution
• Same or different discipline
• Same or different country
• Internet communication tools replace face to face
  discussion

6
Example Cases Comparing a national peer review
activity with an international one

• Case 1 Polish and German students reviewed web
  sites produced by UK students
• Case 2 Polish students reviewed web sites
  produced by other Polish students

7
Findings International peer review

• Over 90 of the respondents thought the activity
  was beneficial
• Students from abroad gave a different view of
  their work
• The activity could be made reciprocal
• About a quarter found the activity difficult
• Over 80 would prefer to work in their native
  language

8
Findings National peer review

• Posts to the discussion board were easier in
  their own language
• Enthusiasm for honest evaluation
• There was greater understanding, because the
  culture of the participants was the same

9
Summary

• Matching international students with different
  skills or subject knowledge gave rise to
  misunderstandings
• But, feedback was more formal than between
  students from the same country
• Using their native language may promote more
  detailed and critical discussion
• Familiarity with expected standards made for a
  more relaxed discussion
• Peer review within the same country enables the
  product to be developed in their native language

10
Conclusions

• National peer review activities will give an
  opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion
• International activities will be useful for
  practice in different languages
• Choosing a national activity may be a safer
  option to pilot a peer review activity

11

• Thank you for listening
• Any questions?
• For more details, or to set up a peer review
  activity, go to
• www.cabweb.net
• J.E.Whatley_at_salford.ac.uk