Blackboard Ultra Peer Assessment.

Using criteria provided by their instructors and optional sample responses, students can provide points and feedback for submitted assignments.  The tool provides students a deeper understanding of the material and further insight into their own work through the evaluative process. This guide demonstrates how to set up and use Blackboard Ultra peer review to allow students to review other students’ assessment submissions.  The guide also includes using peer review from the student’s perspective.

There are times when you want students to compare their own work against model responses. This type of activity helps students evaluate the level of their work and reflect on any mistakes or ways to improve their writing. The Peer Assessment tool allows you to set up time periods for students to submit their work and evaluate their work using the criteria you defined and examples of acceptable responses. You can review the results and adjust grades accordingly.

Blackboard peer review timeline.

There is a very specific order in which the base assignment must be released and submitted before the Blackboard Ultra peer review assignment can be released and submitted.  The process is summarised in the diagram below.

Setup process.

From the course content area, select Create a new item.

Then select Assignment to create a new assignment.

Give the new assignment a name and add the instructions.  Now update the assignment settings, to update the assignment settings, select the setting cog and in the settings area, adjust details of the assignment as required (such as the due date and grade points).  Once the assignment is created modify the visibility option Visible to Students.

Scroll down and select Peer Review.

Click Select peer settings. In the expanded panel you can:

• Set the number of reviews per student required.
• The assessment due date for the assignment submission.
• The Peer review due date for the peer-review completion.

The peer-review due date must come after the assessment due date.  The peer-review process starts immediately after the assessment due date ends.

Select Save to return to the assignment settings and select Save again to return to the create assignment panel.

To see the submissions and peer reviews, click the Submissions button in the upper right section of the page.  On the assignment main page, you will be able to see a list of assignments submitted, which students have submitted as well as the peer reviews that have been completed.

If you select a student submission, you will be able to see the assignment and the peer reviews provided by the student.

Student view of the Blackboard Ultra peer review process

This is an example of a student view for an assignment in Blackboard Ultra that has been configured so that students must peer review one other student’s submitted work.

When peer review is enabled on a Turnitin submission, the Start peer reviews option will be displayed in the assignment detail menu.

The submitted work to be peer-assessed will open allowing the student to review the content and leave their feedback.

Just like when lecturers leave feedback, students can either type text into the default feedback box, add a link to feedback stored online or insert content such as attaching a separate work document or recoding some audio feedback.

Once the feedback has been added the student peer reviewer can click the Submit button to complete and submit their peer review.

Peer review alternative

If you need more flexibility you can use discussion boards for peer assessment activities. Create a discussion board forum where students post their assignments to individual threads. Instruct students to comment on the thread of another student’s paper to indicate that is the one they will review. Let students know how many reviewers are allowed per paper or send out an announcement with assigned pairings. If you want the review process to be anonymous, check that setting when creating the discussion forum and remind students not to have identifiable information in their papers or reviews.  The review process gives you an opportunity to look at the feedback provided to students and accept or revise the grades the reviewers gave.