Peer Feedback

Peer feedback is a process where students provide feedback to one another. This practice can be used to provide formative feedback on the building blocks of a larger assessment, to communicate performance and engagement in group work or to facilitate course evaluation for lower stakes assessments. Ideally, peer feedback for any assessment would be provided anonymously, and by more than one reviewer, to obtain the most objective and valuable perspective and recommendations.

Providing students with the opportunity to receive feedback on their learning or on an assessment offers several advantages for both student and instructor:

  • Increases student engagement
  • Deepens learning of content
  • Enhances development of communication and self-regulation skills
  • Improves acceptance of constructive criticism

Because feedback is an essential skill for students to develop, you are encouraged to model and teach it to your students so that they learn how to provide meaningful, actionable feedback.

To support student development in providing peer feedback, CTL recommends using one (or more) of the following three approaches to providing peer feedback:

  1. Peer Feedback Rubric
  2. The RISE Model
  3. Kritik

Peer Feedback Rubric

Rubrics are useful tools to help structure peer feedback. By developing the review criteria, you can outline how students are expected to write and share feedback with their peers. You may choose to have students participate in determining rubric criteria through a class activity or discussion; involving students in determining criteria will nurture ownership, investment and accountability in the process and outcome.

Peer Review Rubric
Strengths
Evidence of exceeding expectations		 Criteria
Standards for this activity/assessment		 Areas for Growth
Areas for improvement
(Detailed description of a single criterion)
(Detailed description of a single criterion)

The RISE Model

Created by Emily Wray in 2011, the RISE Model of Meaningful Feedback helps students to structure and provide meaningful peer feedback. The RISE Model is aligned with Bloom’s taxonomy and guides students through four stages of providing feedback:

  1. Reflect – students first recall and consider what they liked/disliked and agreed/disagreed with in their peer’s work
  2. Inquire – students next use questioning to seek further information and to provide ideas
  3. Suggest – students then recommend ways that their peers can improve upon their current work
  4. Elevate – finally, students propose ways that their peers can create better work in the future

By using this four-stage process, students are able to provide specific, actionable feedback to their peers.

The H5P activity below explains the RISE model and provides students with an opportunity to practice giving feedback using this model. This activity is available to embed as-is or you can modify it for use in your courses by clicking “Reuse” and uploading it to your own H5P account.

Kritik

Kritik is an online platform that facilitates peer-to-peer assessment of student work, including writing samples, essays, presentations, lab reports, videos, group projects and more. Kritik uses three stages of assessment (creation, evaluation and feedback) to provide students with the opportunity to learn from their peers and gain a deeper understanding of course concepts. The CTL offers support and PD to faculty members who are interested in using Kritik in their courses.

References

Cambrian College Teaching & Learning Innovation Hub. (2019, November 12). Single-point rubric. Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://teaching.cambriancollege.ca/assess/rubrics/single-point/ .

Wray, E. (2011). RISE model for meaningful feedback. Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://www.risemodel.com/students .