PeerWise: Students creating questions for their peers

Abstract

PeerWise (https://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/) is a system which allows students to create multiple-choice questions for other students, answer questions posed by their peers and then provide feedback (Denny et al, 2008). There is evidence in the literature to show this method of assessment has a positive impact (e.g., Guilding et al. 2021; Fergus et al. 2021; Feeley and Parris 2012), particularly on students’ attainment and engagement. In a funded project, we introduced PeerWise into the assessment for a module at Sheffield Hallam University (U.K.) and another at La Trobe University (Australia). In this case study, we give an overview of PeerWise and the activities within the platform, results from our evaluation of the activity, and advice for implementation collected within the project from other practitioners around the world who have experience using PeerWise. Cohesive themes arising from our evaluation and the advice collected are summarised to form recommendations for improved student experience and outcomes, for future implementation of the PeerWise platform by practitioners.