Peer Assessment as a Facilitating and Assessment Strategy in Online and Face-to-Face Classes

Abstract

Although group work has shown positive effects on student learning, it has been challenging to encourage students to actively engage in group work and assess individual contributions to group projects, particularly in online courses. Peer assessment is a peer evaluation method in which each student assesses group members on how well they did on a group project thereby facilitating students' participation in the group project. The purpose of this study was to examine how students perceived peer assessment as a facilitating and assessment strategy and whether their perceptions were different between online and face-to-face classes. The findings showed both face-to-face and online students perceived that peer assessment was not only a good way to facilitate students' participations and contributions, but it was also a reliable way to assess students' contributions to a group project.