Boost your Groupwork Assessments with new Buddycheck and Peer Evaluation resources

Posted on: 28 March 2024 by Will Moindrot in General

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The Centre for Innovation in Education (CIE) is excited to announce a new collection of resources to guide and enhance your use of Buddycheck, a powerful tool for peer evaluation.

(New collection of resources)

Peer evaluation, where students assess their teammates’ contribution to group projects, offers a valuable strategy to:

  • Prompt reflection and feedback from groupwork learning experiences.
  • Increase fairness in group assessments by reflecting individual efforts in grades.
  • Boost student engagement and provide valuable insights into student performance.

Buddycheck streamlines the process of peer evaluation by automating collection of evaluations from students and preparing data for staff to apply to group marks, resulting in peer-moderated individual grades. It integrates seamlessly with Canvas, saving time and integrating effortlessly with existing assessment workflows. Buddycheck was introduced at the University of Liverpool in 2019 following a successful pilot (see case study from Dr Andy Bates).

While we have existing “rough guide” video tutorials (see Buddycheck Setup Playlist), the new collection offers a comprehensive toolkit for new users of Buddycheck and peer evaluation in general: Peer Evaluation with Buddycheck – a DIY Guide

Highlights of the collection

  • A resource for new users that provides a pedagogical context to Peer Evaluation, with advice on embedding peer evaluation into modules, and advice from experienced practitioners on the smooth implementation of peer evaluation: Peer Evaluation Guide
  • A digiguide that provides step-by-step technical instruction but also recommendation on the best options for a smooth and trouble-free implementation: DigiGuide Buddycheck
  • Sample text for a module handbook to save time for staff thinking about explaining their use of peer evaluation to students at the outset of a module: Buddycheck Student Explainer
  • Student facing support materials, produced by students, and useful to introduce Buddycheck and prompt discussion on effective group working: Peer Evaluation Student-Facing Support Materials (also within KnowHow)

We hope these resources help you to empower students to get the most from their groupwork experience. If you would like to discuss any ideas or need help getting started, please email cie@liverpool.ac.uk.