Assessing online collaboratories: a peer review of teaching & learning

This paper presents action research informed by Peer Reviews of innovative assessment in a ‘fully blended ’ undergraduate Communications subject. The assessments, the teachers’ intentions for student learning and the process and outcomes of two rounds of review will be discussed. Assessment is the crux of a subject for students and teachers, and the paper will show how ‘conversations about teaching ’ as part of a Peer Review process can enhance assessment. The assessment that was the focus of the review involves collaboratories in which students use wikis to build on collaborative knowledge production about emerging technologies. Peer Reviews focused on the strategies used to encourage greater student-directed and managed participation in the construction of the wikis and associated student-moderated online discussions. The first round identified ways that the assessment criteria could be more specific and distinct in relation to the subject’s themes and practices. The second round specifically focused on the assignments that flowed from the collaboratories. One motivation for this teacher to engage in the project was the need to make the assessment more sustainable. This issue was confirmed, and ways of improving the sustainability of the assessment process were explored as part of the second round o