PEER EVALUATION OF LABS 2, 3 AND 4
As part of this MOOC, we want you to experiment, build, manufacture - to push you to be real makers. This course therefore has a strong practical aspect, as we ask you to create assemblies based on Arduino technology (either in real life or on a simulator).
As there are several ways to code a solution, it is difficult to evaluate submissions automatically. Although we've built a tool to correct your work in Lab 1 (Taskgrader), the Labs 2, 3 and 4 are too complex as of now for this tool.
This course is an online course bringing together thousands of people, it would be impossible for the instructors to correct your work individually. So, like many MOOCs, we rely on collective intelligence for this! Your work will be evaluated by your peers.
But, be able to grade as many copies as there are learners isn't the only reason the instructors of this course chose to rely on peer grading. A further advantage of peer reviewing is that it allows you to take note of the programs developed by others. You will learn to identify errors, provide feedback and make suggestions for improvements for your colleague who wrote the code. When you take note of the work of another person, you are both taking a critical stance on the work of others and also challenged to re-examine your own way of working. We believe this will allow you to learn even more.
We take several measures to make sure that you are all guided through this process, and reduce risks of any learner being unfairly graded :
- firstly, before the first peer review, learners are presented with a copy created by the instructors and are asked to grade it. This is a practice exercise within a quiz, and the right and wrong grades to give the copy are presented.
- secondly, the grading is all done based on a detailed evaluation rubric, provided by the instructors. This rubric will help you mark each other's work consistently.
- thirdly, all learners who review a peer are invited to explain why they graded their peer in a certain way in a comment section, particularly if they gave them a poor grade.
- fourthly, you can make a claim in a forum if you want your copy to be reviewed by the teaching team and we will manage these individually.
Here are a few comments left by learners from session 1 of the course, who shared on forums why they appreciated the exercise :
“I liked the peer review system as I got some valuable feedback from others to correct the programs.”
"I think peer review process is a great way of learning. It allows one to think and understand how other people approach the problem. It can also provide extra stimulus to weaker links to step up to the challenge."