Peer Review in the Classroom: The Benefits of Free Selection in a Time-Restricted Setting

This study examines the potential of a peer review approach in the time-restricted setting of a class session. In the free selection setting we explored, students had access to all peer work and they were allowed to select which work they want to read and review. The study was conducted during the 8th week of the course, right after students’ first deliverable. A total of 18 Master students were asked to provide structured feedback to their peers, using a review template. In the 2-hour period of the peer review activity, students had to review two peer deliverables: one that was randomly assigned to them and one they could choose freely from the remaining set. Result analysis showed that while half of the students followed a minimum effort strategy, reading and reviewing only two peer deliverables, the other half read several deliverables before deciding which one to review. We maintain that reviewing peer work can be beneficial for the students, offering to them multiple perspectives (i.e., those of the reviewees). As such, the suggested approach could be proven more beneficial for the students, than the widely applied paired approach, in which two students review each other’s work. The study also examines the criteria students use for selecting which peer work to review and comments on the limited overhead opposed to the teacher, making the method a useful and efficient instructional tool.