Incorporating peer assessment into tandem learning

Abstract

A credit-rated tandem course unit has been running at the University of Manchester for the past six years and an element of peer assessment has always been present in the assessment procedure. Unfortunately, the course leaders found that this element was not entirely satisfactory. Although there were clear criteria in the course documentation for students to award up to 10% of their partners' final marks, there were obvious indications that students found these difficult to apply. As a result, this element was unsuccessful in discriminating between students' performance, with the majority awarding each other fairly high marks across the board, and — except in a few rare cases — with students demonstrating minimal engagement in the assessment process. In an attempt to remedy this situation, it was decided to ask students to devise their own criteria upon which to assess each other. This task became one of the six learning assignments which students were required to submit in their end-of-semester portfolio. The results of this innovation were felt to be very satisfactory: students took this element of the assessment process more seriously; they looked in depth at what they and their partner considered important in the tandem relationship and the learning environment; and they produced some very pertinent criteria which had, until then, escaped the course leaders. This paper focuses on the practicalities of how this change was effected and will give an account of some of the very insightful work produced by our students.