This study reports the effects of online peer assessment, in the form of peer grading and peer feedback, on students' learning. One hundred and eighty one high school students engaged in peer assessment via an online system-iLap. The number of gradegiving and grade-receiving experiences was examined and the peer feedback was coded according to different cognitive and affective dimensions. The effects, on both assessors and assessees, were analyzed using multiple regression. The results indicate that the provision by student assessors of feedback that identified problems and gave suggestions was a significant predictor of the performance of the assessors themselves, and that positive affective feedback was related to the performance of assessees. However, peer grading behaviors were not a significant predictor of project performance. This study explains the benefits of online peer assessment in general and highlights the importance of specific types of feedback. Moreover, it expands our understanding of how peer assessment affects the different parties involved.
This article describes a case study of an international collaboration between two classes of fifth grade students through an online discussion platform with one group more experienced in online knowledge building activities than the other. Before the collaboration, the novice class tended to produce isolated notes filled with information and confined their efforts to their own selected topics. When the more experienced class joined in, the discourse of the students in the novice class changed from more information-centered toward meaning negotiations; many more of their notes were linked with one another and they no longer confined their reading and responses to their own study topic. The class more experienced in knowledge building was more ready to express disagreement in their discourse. There was also evidence that the novice class learned from the experienced class to ask more questions in their online discussion. When the joint-collaboration ended, the novice class could still maintain the changed interaction patterns that reflected a stronger knowledge building orientation. 123
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