Improving Student Learning through Peer Marking in a Firstyear Engineering Course

The paper reports on an initiative in a first-year engineering course, Electrical and Digital Systems, ELECTENG 101, compulsory for all students. Typically two-thirds of these students subsequently choose a non-electrical-engineering discipline, having no particular interest in electrical engineering. ELECTENG 101 has been seen as a difficult, 'gatekeeper' course. Tutorial attendance declines through the semester: in 2007 and 2008, tutorials were ultimately attended by only about 15% of enrolled students. Aiming to boost tutorial engagement and student achievement, peer-marked assignments were introduced. Students received a small number of marks for doing an assignment, and marking another's. Attendance at tutorial sessions consequently improved radically. Survey results indicated that most students considered peer-marking had made them think more deeply about the material and also about how a solution was communicated. Examination performance improved over earlier years, and there is some evidence that circuit theory concepts were retained better into the following year.