Print12.4 Peer Reviews of Project Outlines
The main idea of the peer review process is to collect constructive feedback on your ideas and assessment plans, as well as to learn from what other people do for the project. The list of who will be reviewing whom will be sent to the class once all the presentations have been submitted. Typically, you are assigned to review at least 2 other projects.
Note that you may need to download the presentation files from Canvas to your computer to hear the audio in PowerPoint.
Here is what we are looking for in peer reviews:
- Express your opinion on the importance of the topic chosen (is the technology promising, potentially transformative, suitable for that area?)
- Comment on the proposed plan of assessment (is it feasible; is anything important missing; is there something that can be skipped since it is already well known or irrelevant; is it too wide or too narrow?)
- Provide some constructive suggestions. (What would increase the value of this assessment, what should be the main focus?)
- Explore the topic yourself a little and recommend some resources that may be helpful to the author in your opinion: you can include links, references, videos, or just information you know;
- Ask questions! If any information needs clarification or if you want to challenge any ideas, ask.
All that said, try to be helpful and valuable, not just critical. But it is appropriate to provide critique if you feel it will help people improve their project. Note that peer-review is more than just a general comment (like we do on a discussion forum) -- think of making a contribution to the project quality.
Compose your review in the form of a letter to the author. For example, you can start as:
Dear <Author's Name>,
It was a pleasure to listen to your presentation on <...topic...>. Below are my comments, which I hope you will find helpful...
Further, you will need to structure your review summary by the above-listed points. When grading your peer review, the instructor will also look at your contributions according to this rubric.
Please email your Review directly to the author and also upload it to the Canvas Dropbox for the instructor to assess. You should be able to send email with an attachment to anyone in the class via Canvas Inbox tool. Do not assume that the Instructor will deliver your review to the author. If the author never receives your review and is left hanging, that is poor communcation on your part, which may also result in deduction of some points.
This is Milestone 3 of course project development, and I hope you look forward to this important step and will value peer learning component associated with it!