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<\/a>Here I explain what it can do, what you can do now to find out more about the app, and the guidance and training we will be offering in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why a peer evaluation tool? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Learning how to work effectively as part of inclusive groups and teams is a vital skill and one we need to help our students develop. The improved integration of group work at all levels of the curriculum, will contribute towards meeting Learn to Transform strategic priorities, and those emerging from the Curriculum Reimagined project, to put skills development and employability at the heart of the Sussex curriculum. Also, emerging best practice in assessment in response to the emergence of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, highlights further the need for an increased focus on curriculum design which embeds and expands the use of such authentic assessments.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, when talking with academics, student dislike of group work is often cited as a reason not to include group work in the curriculum. This is in part due to concerns about group assessment being unfair or unrepresentative of group member\u2019s contributions. It likely also reflects that fact that group work is just difficult. However, this doesn\u2019t mean it should be avoided. Instead, we should strive to develop curricular that build our students\u2019 skills and confidence over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To support group work and mitigate such student concerns, peer evaluation and scoring of individual contributions to group work is already used extensively at Sussex. However, existing approaches have several challenges: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Buddycheck is a simple to use peer evaluation and scoring tool, which will be integrated into Canvas from August this year. It will help you to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be used formatively or linked to summative assessments. You can ask students to respond to pre-set questions on their contributions to a group project, or devise your own. You can also decide on the level of peer feedback and anonymity, and can adjust how peer scores are weighted and used to calculate individual marks. Other features include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n An extract from a Buddycheck \u2018personal report\u2019 for a student user is provided below. Note how the spider plot demonstrates, to a somewhat overconfident student, the difference between how they rated themself (Self), how their teammates rated them (Received), and what the average rating was of the entire team (Team Avg). The personal report then breaks the scores by question with feedforward comments on how students might improve.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We road tested Buddycheck in Semester 1 of 2022\/23 with four Module Convenors from 3 schools, on modules with between 25 and 950 students, covering Levels 4,5,6 and 7. All four had a good journey and told us they found Buddycheck easy to use, that it simplified their peer assessment processes and they are happy to recommend it to colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c… a very user friendly tool that greatly simplifies my peer assessment process. The best point is that it integrates into Canvas very well, so each student receives a private and personal request to complete the evaluation. In this way, there is no longer \u2018the pressure to give equal peer marks\u2019 that I observed in the past years when I used my old peer assessment method, and I believe it has made the peer assessment fairer<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Hsi-Ming Ho, Lecturer in Theoretical Computer Science (Informatics)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Buddycheck will be available from August along with \u2018how to\u2019 guidance and workshops from Educational Enhancement from September, along with guidance you can use with your students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We also plan to enhance our current guidance on planning group work assignments<\/a> to include insights into how to encourage inclusive and productive group work, including using peer scoring and evaluation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you would like to know more about Buddycheck now<\/strong>, e.g. to inform your curriculum development over the summer, you have three options: <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow can Buddycheck help? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>What support is available? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n