Peer Assessment Using Student Co-Designed Rubrics

This pilot study explores peer assessment using student co-designed rubrics as a strategy that might enhance the clarity of assessment tasks for students and lead to their greater engagement with assessment. The strategy was implemented twice. Student responses, collected in a focus group, suggested the first implementation was not as successful as we had hoped, and the second was designed with alterations intended to improve the experience for students, which included collecting students’ responses online. The research is qualitative, and narrative-based rather than data-focused. The student cohorts are too small, and too different in size, to make generalisations possible. Nevertheless, the two iterations of the experiment yielded interesting contrasts and suggestions for future practice. Many academics might be interested in peer assessment but unsure about its effectiveness or how best to implement it. This research indicates ways that it may be used to enhance students’ experience of assessment.