Evaluating Online Peer Assessment as an Educational Tool for Promoting Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate how grade evaluations for a university course assignment derived from peer assessment, compare to grade evaluations derived from self-assessment and teacher assessment. One hundred thirty-six undergraduate students in a university course were asked to submit an assignment to Moodle Workshop in June, 2014. The assignments were assessed separately by the students themselves (self-evaluation), a random group of their classroom peers (peer evaluation), and the course teacher (teacher evaluation). Students’ opinions on various aspects of the peer assessment process were also collected and analyzed. Results indicate that grade evaluations from peer assessments are inclined to be lower than evaluations from self-assessments. Grade evaluations from peer assessments and teacher assessments were more similarly matched, with a significant positive correlation of r=0.75. Many students (84%) agreed that doing peer assessment on other students’ assignments led them to reflect on how they personally performed their own assignment. The benefits of peer assessment as a tool for promoting self-regulated learning are explored. Implications of the results and potential future research on this topic are discussed.