A reciprocal peer review system to support college students' writing

Abstract

As students' problem-solving processes in writing are rarely observed in face-to-face instruction, they have few opportunities to participate collaboratively in peer review to improve their texts. This study reports the design of a reciprocal peer review system for students to observe and learn from each other when writing. A sample of 95 undergraduate students was recruited to construct texts with the support of web-based reciprocal peer review in the processes of modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration. The results of the study revealed that these six processes helped students externalise and visualise their internal writing processes so that they could observe and learn from peers in writing as well as support peers in making text revisions. During their extensive and reciprocal interactions with various peers, students addressed mutual concerns in each other's text revisions. They constructed collaborative language knowledge for text improvement as local revisions (grammatical corrections) and global revisions (corrections on the development, organization or style of a text) were made in their final texts. The students' perceptions towards text improvement in this web-based peer review of modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration are also discussed in this study.

A web‐based peer‐assessment approach to improving junior high school students' performance, self‐efficacy and motivation in performing arts courses

“…In addition, the team-based nature of the performing arts project may also have positively contributed to this result. It is quite possible that the students in the experimental group were more engaged and satisfied because they got to interact more with their team members during the learning process, as reported by several studies (Li, Liu & Zhou, 2012;Liu & Tsai, 2005;Yang, 2011).…”

Effects of a Mixed-Mode Peer Response on Student Response Behavior and Writing Performance

“…Additionally, the CMC mode allows learners to have more equal opportunities to participate in responding activities without being dominated by others (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). Moreover, the interaction of peer response in the CMC mode can be stored, printed, and monitored by students and teachers (Yang, 2011). However, the CMC mode also has some disadvantages.…”

Examining the role of feedback messages in undergraduate students' writing performance during an online peer assessment activity

“…Both the evaluation of peers' work and revision of self-work are usually incorporated in the process of peer assessment (Smith, Cooper, & Lancaster, 2002), particularly in online environments (Chen & Tsai, 2009;Tseng & Tsai, 2007). Learners can submit their work, review peers' work, and revise their work without the restrictions of time or space (Lin, Liu, & Yuan, 2001) and with the flexibility to modify their feedback to peers or revise their work through the online peer assessment system (Yang, 2011). Moreover, the participation and communication among learners in such activities can be automatically recorded for further learning analytics (Tsai, 2009), for example the data recording of an individual's emotional responses when making comments or responding to peers (Cheng, Hou, & Wu, 2014).…”