Assessing In-Class Student Presentations: Some Observations on On-line Peer Surveys

In my brief presentation, I will inform conferees of the potentials of using on-line peer surveys to assess in-class student presentations. Augmenting more conventional assessment tools via proprietary/licensed platforms such as Blackboard and Moodle (including in-class responses/quizzes, on-line chat, and fora), on-line peer surveys co-opt student commitment to their own (and their classmates’) formative learning process and give that commitment a specific structure and data-basis aligned to specific TLA rubrics and course AMs. Instead of in-class group presentations’ intended audience being the instructor, student group presenters may more properly key their level of interaction and data delivery to the in-class context of experiential learning on a peer-to-peer assessment basis. Quantitatively, student peer surveys can likewise check against instructor bias, as students rate the same TLA rubric the instructor is using; student peer assessment thus makes the instructor all the more confident when cross-checking his own ratings against the peer survey findings. Qualitatively, comment fields can help provide contour, depth, and feedback to the student presenters’ own data with an eye toward the latter’s development of longer, research-driven AMs-such as essay-answer exams and term paper compositions. Looking ahead, preliminary findings about the use and utility of peer review instruments, in general, may well foreshadow a larger student role in generating CILOs and ILOs for the courses they are currently taking, as stakeholders in the development and on-going maintenance of those courses they find most enriching and hope to sustain for the future.