Global learning partnerships in the Café: peer feedback as a formative assessment tool for animation students

Abstract

This paper reports on a global learning partnership using the Café: the collaborative application for education as an e-learning environment within the Facebook framework, for first-year animation students at the University of South Australia (USA) in Australia and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “The Café” has been designed based on five principles of user interface design – visibility, usability, relevance, accessibility, and interactivity – and aims to provide institutions with an established, structured, and dedicated e-learning environment that meets the needs of modern-day tertiary students and teaching staff. From July to November in 2013, 71 students participated within the e-learning environment. Students submitted work-in-progress imagery related to major assignments, and provided feedback and critiques to their local and global peers. A post-semester survey provided students with the opportunity to critically reflect on the learning experience. The results are discussed in light of the use of peer feedback as a formative assessment tool.

Keywords:

• peer feedback
• formative assessment
• social media
• Facebook
• e-learning
• global learning partnerships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Josh McCarthy is a lecturer in digital media with specific interests in animation, graphic design, photography, and digital art. He teaches within the Bachelor of Media Arts programme in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. His research interests are in emerging technologies in learning and teaching, abstract expressionism in photography, animation in tertiary education, and mentoring in design and digital media education.