Peer assessment is a technique that has been successfully employed in a variety of academic disciplines, and which is considered to be effective in developing student's higher cognitive skills. In this paper, we consider the results of applying novel web-based technology to the delivery of peer assessment in the context of an undergraduate computer programming course, and discuss the benefits of this approach.

In response to the demands of increasing student numbers, the BOSS system for submission and assessment has been constructed to enable student programming assignments to be submitted and tested on-line. More recent developments of this system have been concerned with the addition of electronic marking facilities that incorporate both automated marking, resulting from the automated testing, and manual marking in a secure environment. This paper briefly reviews the system and describes in detail the electronic marksheets , their functionality, and their user-interface.