An Assessment of the PeerWise Student-Contributed Question System's Impact on Learning Outcomes: Evidence from a Large Enrollment Political Science Course

Answering questions in a co‐created formative exam question bank improves summative exam performance, while students perceive benefits from answering, authoring, and peer discussion: A mixed methods analysis of PeerWise

“…In previous studies, students frequently noted answering questions as the biggest benefit of using PeerWise. 13,31,50 The perceived benefits of answering such as improved course knowledge, improved exam taking skills, and increased confidence are similar across this study and others. 13,31,38,51 Frequent formative assessment with explanatory feedback has been shown to be valuable in promoting learning.…”

“…13,31,50 The perceived benefits of answering such as improved course knowledge, improved exam taking skills, and increased confidence are similar across this study and others. 13,31,38,51 Frequent formative assessment with explanatory feedback has been shown to be valuable in promoting learning. 4,5 Explanatory feedback aids the learning and retention of information, 52,53 and explanations of MCQs which offered solutions to the questions were highlighted in this study as an important learning tool.…”

“…31,32,55 In this study, PeerWise standing; question writing is suggested to employ higher levels of comprehension than answering. 13,34,46 Indeed, students who had authored in our study believed this stimulated in-depth learning and understanding. Similar results were found in other studies, which showed that question authoring activities drove desirable learning behaviors such as the integration of varying types and sources of information.…”

“…[22][23][24][25][26] While it is difficult to disentangle the effect of the intervention from confounding factors such as other simultaneous learning activities and the intrinsic ability of students, studies in pharmacy, political science, accountancy, and STEM courses have shown improvements in assessments results when confounds such as previous academic performance are factored into the analyses. 13,[27][28][29] Attempts to determine which aspects of PeerWise use contributed to this positive correlation indicated that academic benefits arose from engaging across a range of activities. 23,29,30 Fewer studies investigate the impact of PeerWise use in medical degree programs.…”

“…Incorporating PeerWise into a course of study creates several active learning opportunities rooted in constructivist learning theory. Writing questions for example, engages higher order thinking processes, engages students deeply in course content, and choosing distractors raises awareness of misconceptions and plausible alternative interpretations of content 13–15 . Students writing, explaining, and discussing questions with peers are actively engaged in constructing their own knowledge and understanding of the course learning outcomes; they thereby build a collaborative learning community which studies show can enhance student performance 16 .…”