Improving Feedback and Discussion in MOOC Peer Assessement Using Introduced Peers

摘要

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) often use peer grading which enables the use of open ended questions in assignments at scale. Open ended questions enhance students' creativity and improve cognition. However, this peer grading includes drawback such as missing or low quality feedback, and inconsistency between peer graders. In design studios and highly connected MOOCs, a common practice is to use open feedback, visible to everyone in the community. Drawing inspirations from this technique, we hypothesize that introducing peers and allowing them to communicate with each other during peer assessment in a structured open learning environment will increase the quality of feedback. We tested this approach in a controlled study, comparing open to blind peer review, and found the technique led to higher quality feedback. We discuss implications using open identity grading in learning environments as a potential stimuli for students to interact more.