Peer assessment of recorded student presentations

BACKGROUND Constructive alignment, authentic assessment and developing professional competencies (transferable/non-technical skills) are important issues in engineering education. These challenges have been highlighted by professional bodies such as Engineers Australia and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). A wealth of research exists that directly links these issues to student learning. Face to face activities such as seminars, provide on-campus students opportunities to practice these skills. Without similar activities it is often difficult to engage external students in tasks that involve higher order learning objectives (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) through traditional assignments. While modern telepresence and video conferencing tools allow real-time interaction, these prove ineffective for students who work full time and are located in different time zones. To undertake such activities with external students in an asynchronous way, another learning tool is required. This paper reports on a learning activity that involved recorded student presentations and their assessment by peers in two classes, i.e. a first year introductory course into engineering applications and a third year course covering communication protocols and computer systems. PURPOSE The motivation of using peer assessment in these classes was to engage students in tasks that are beneficial to their learning. The research question for the work discussed in this paper is - in what ways do students perceive and approach peer assessment tasks and how this relates to development of their professional identity. APPROACH Students in a number of courses use the learning activity to access recorded presentations of their peers. It is demonstrated that the way these tools are used follow the principles of constructive alignment. Students participated in a survey to evaluate their perceptions of the peer assessment activity and its relationship to their professional development. Assessments that students have provided will be further analysed in future research to gain a better understanding of the quality of their assessment. RESULTS Feedback indicates that students appreciate opportunities for peer assessment, in particular as it is different from traditional, paper-based learning tasks and assignments. The results show a difference in how students engage with this activity depending on their maturity and year level. CONCLUSIONS Involving external students in presentations and offering them opportunities to provide feedback to peers is an excellent way to engage students in reflective activities. There is clear evidence that shows that students have developed their professional identities. Learning activities that allow students to develop their professional identity should be more widely used with both face-to-face as well as distance students