The Effectiveness of Peer Assessment in an Online MOOC-Based MBA Program

Peer assessments are used both as formative ungraded and summative graded activities in a range of learning environments. As a form of collaborative learning, they are beneficial to online students’ performance and motivation because they help create social presence in online environments. Findings from several studies highlight the importance of equipping students with the tools and skills to grade each other reliably and fairly in traditional online learning environments. The scale of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) makes it very difficult for instructors to supervise peer assessments, therefore best practices have been identified: providing students with unambiguous and easy to follow instructions; sharing the grading rubric in advance; allowing students to repeat this activity to familiarize with the process. In this presentation, we will focus on two examples of peer assessments implemented in an online MOOC-based MBA program at the University of Illinois. Two MOOCs were compared in this study: one designed in 2015, which offered a basic rubric and no example of an answer or a 'passing' assignment, and the same MOOC redesigned in 2016, which offers a more detailed rubric and a sample answer. Preliminary observations from student feedback and peer assessment grade distributions from two MOOCs indicate higher learner performance and motivation when a detailed grading rubric and a sample answer are provided. Data collection and analysis is in progress to examine the statistical significance of the effect of each variable (sample answer and detailed rubric) on learner's performance and their interaction.Ope