PEER is a free and open-source desktop application for educators to facilitate the process of conducting a student peer evaluation for teamwork assignments within the Canvas learning management system.
Peer evaluation helps to improve teamwork assignments. It can be used to recognise individual contributions to a team assignment, providing motivation to all team members to take on a fair share of the overall workload. In addition, peer evaluation can be used to provide feedback to other students about how their contribution is perceived, providing an invaluable development opportunity.
The PEER app performs three main functions. The app:
- Extracts group membership data from Canvas that can be used in a survey package (e.g., Qualtrics, LimeSurvey)
- Provides a bulk messaging function that can be used to confirm group membership, send out unique survey invitation links, and reminders
- Automatically calculates peer marks from the survey data using different scoring methods, and it uploads these marks / feedback to the Canvas grade book
Instructional videos for setting up and using PEER are now available on YouTube.
The PEER app was developed by Associate Professor Timothy Bednall with the support of Dr Ryan Jopp at Swinburne University of Technology. © Timothy Bednall 2019-present.