Evaluation of marking of peer marking in oral presentation.

Dietmar Steverding,Kevin M Tyler,Darren W Sexton

doi:10.1007/s40037-016-0254-8

Dietmar Steverding, Kevin M Tyler + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-016-0254-8

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Abstract

BackgroundPeer marking is an important skill for students, helping them to understand the process of learning and assessment. This method is increasingly used in medical education, particularly in formative assessment. However, the use of peer marking in summative assessment is not widely adopted because many teachers are concerned about biased marking by students of their peers.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate whether marking of summative peer assessment can improve the reliability of peer marking.MethodsIn a retrospective analysis, the peer-marking results of a summative assessment of oral presentations of two cohorts of students were compared. One group of students was told that their peer marks would be assessed against a benchmark consisting of the average of examiner marks and that these scores together with the peer and examiner marks would form their final exam results. The other group of students were just informed that their final exam results would be determined based on the examiner and peer marks.ResultsBased on examiner marks, both groups of students performed similarly in their summative assessment, agreement between student markers was less consistent and more polar than the examiners. When compared with the examiners, students who were told that their peer marking would be scored were more generous markers (their average peer mark was 2.4 % points higher than the average examiner mark) while students who were not being scored on their marking were rather harsh markers (their average peer mark was 4.2 % points lower than the average examiner mark), with scoring of the top-performing students most affected.ConclusionsMarking of peer marking had a small effect on the marking conduct of students in summative assessment of oral presentation but possibly indicated a more balanced marking performance.

Highlights

Peer assessment is increasingly used in higher medical education as it is an effective method to improve self-directed learning and reflection [1,2,3]
The results show that peer marking in certain summative assessments is feasible and that students generally assess their peers in an unbiased fashion
In order to be able to determine whether scoring of peer marks would affect the peer marking of students, an essential prerequisite was that the two student groups U and M were matchable with respect to their exam performance

Summary

Introduction

Peer assessment is increasingly used in higher medical education as it is an effective method to improve self-directed learning and reflection [1,2,3]. It usually involves the assessment and evaluation of the work of a fellow student followed by comparison of the work with predefined standards which allows to identify gaps in knowledge. Peer marking is an important skill for students, helping them to understand the process of learning and assessment. This method is increasingly used in medical education, in formative assessment. Results Based on examiner marks, both groups of students performed in their summative assessment, agree-

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