Modelling a Peer Assignment Review Process for Collaborative E-learning

The educational culture in most developing countries is lecturer-centred with lecturers asproviders of information and students as receivers of information. This approach has impacted onstudent’s ability to seek and create knowledge to support their learning process. A collaborativelearning approach that promotes students process of inquiry, critical thinking and skilldevelopment thus lacks in the context, yet these aspects are crucial in the knowledge society. Ifuniversities in developing countries are to educate students to compete and become activeparticipants in society, the teaching and learning processes underpinned by relevant theories andmodels should be adopted. This paper proposes an approach to support students´ learning in adeveloping country context - Uganda. Specifically, the authors design and model a peerassignment review process for collaborative e-learning, employing the second stage ofdevelopment research. The model is based on using student to pedagogically support eachother’s learning through four process stages: familiarization, assignment, review and feedback.Empirical investigations of the process stages indicated that the peer assignment review processfacilitated the students learning. Students indicated that they were able to actively participate inthe course, gain experience in critical reading and evaluating peers work, while reflecting ontheir own work. The empirical investigation further indicated that students were able to adoptand use online technologies in their learning activities. As such the peer assignment reviewprocess impacted the students learning both as receivers and providers of reviews creating a levelof acceptance to adopt and use the proposed collaborative e-learning approach