Case Study 2 part 1

Case Study on Peer and Collaborative Assessment
In this section we draw on the ideas presented in ‘3 Peer Review Activities' and present a case study of an engineering tutor's use of peer and collaborative assessment (PCA).

Setting up and implementing peer assessment
In the case study the tutor actively involved a group of 4 th year students in the assessment process. The students were MEng/MSc medical engineers studying implant design technology. Together, the students and tutor co-constructed the task and assessment guidelines.

The tutor wanted to cover 7 joint replacement technologies. She set students the task of reviewing the literature on one type of joint and writing a report. She wanted students to read their peers' reports to:

O develop their knowledge of report writing
O extend their knowledge of implant technologies

Falchikov (2004) argues that there are 4 stages to successful peer assessment: preparation, implementation, evaluation and replication.

In the preparation stage students need to be given a rationale for peer assessment, understand the procedures for peer assessment administration, understand the task and assessment criteria and procedures for resolving disagreements.

The next page explains how the tutor prepared students for PCA.

 O Next page in this section >>>>

The study received funding from the Engineering Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy .