Boosting Student Performance with Peer Reviews; Integration and Analysis of Peer Reviews in a Gamified Software Engineering Classroom

摘要

Peer Reviews between students in higher education is the topic of this paper. By integrating this instruction method into university classroom activities, students train meta-skills and self-reflection, encouraged not only through giving constructive feedback to others but also by reflecting critically on received feedback for their own projects. Methodically, we analyzed over 500 peer reviews in a project-based two semester long Software Engineering class. First, the gamified set-up of the class design is described because the peer review constitutes an integral part thereof. The process of peer reviewing is then reported in detail, including a transcript of an interaction. Finally, we look at the content of peer reviews that are used to improve homework and estimate the number of improvements in the final project hand-in. It can be shown that the peer review contributes in a positive way to students' learning experience and the quality of their final hand-in.