Structuring the role of assessor and assessee in the peer assessment process: the impact on product improvement and peer feedback quality

This research focuses on the added value of structuring the role of both the assessee and the assessor in peer assessment (PA) process in a wiki-based computer-supported collaborative learning environment (CSCL). First year university students, enrolled in an educational sciences program were asked to collaborate in small groups and give feedback on a peers’ performance in a wiki environment. Two subsequent studies were set up. The main aim was to study the product improvement and the quality of students' feedback. In the first study (conducted in 2012), three conditions were implemented: a non-structured peer feedback condition (NS-PFB), a basic structured peer feedback (BS-PFB) condition and an elaborate structured peer feedback condition (ES-PFB). For the second study, the role of assessee and assessor was additionally structured through respectively a feedback request list and/or a content check list, which resulted in four conditions: a no request - no content condition (NoReq-NoCont), a request – no content condition (Req-NoCont), a no request – content condition (NoReq-Cont) and finally, a request – content condition (Req-Cont). Results of the first study showed that the wiki product improved significantly in the initial phase, but the effect decreases over time. Especially, product improvement was significantly higher for the elaborate condition. From abstract 1 to abstract 3, the peer feedback quality augmented over time for all conditions, but the effect of the elaborated structure condition surpassed the two other conditions. For the second study, it is hypothesized that the request – content condition (Req-Cont) will outperform the other conditions regarding product improvement and peer feedback quality.