Designing transparent assessment strategies for online learning in HE (English language)

At the University of Aveiro, several teachers resort to peer assessment, using digital tools available the University’s LMS (Moodle) or other tools that can be integrated in Moodle (e.g., Feedbackfruits, Illustration 1). The option for technology-enhanced peer assessment allows for a better management of the teacher’s and the students’ workload. The former can monitor overall student progress, control feedback pace and easily collect learning analytics, and the latter can self-monitor the learning progress anytime and anywhere.

Illustration 1. Feedbackfruits tool suite (source: https://feedbackfruits.com/peer-review)

A best practice at the University of Aveiro that can be used as an example is the case of a project work, in which students were asked to develop a training plan with their business tutors.  Just to provide some context, after selecting the topic, the challenge encompassed 3 main tasks: 1) the design of a training plan, 2) the production of multimodal training materials and 3) an oral presentation of the final (learning) product. In terms of assessment, the work developed by each group was only assessed by the teacher in the last task (oral presentation of the final work). The dynamics used to assess the process was peer-based as represented in Illustration 2.

Illustration 2. Example of peer-based assessment strategy

As presented in Illustration 2, the assessment of the students’ learning encompassed:

• the 1:1 peer assessment (based on criteria) and the group-to-group peer assessment (peer review);
• the teacher’s assessment of the 1:1 and group-to-group peer assessment results;
• the student’s self-assessment (reflection);
• the teacher’s assessment of the final oral presentation.