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• Enhancing international student experience with
  innovative assessment and feedback
• Helena Snee
• (GBS BL champion and SL in Economics)
• Dr Esyin Chew
• (SL in technology enhanced learning, teaching and
  assessment)

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Aims and Objectives of Research

• Embed GradeMark and PeerMark as the feedback
  approach in the academic year of 2010/2011 for
  Economics modules.
• Explore international students experiences with
  GradeMark the online submission, plagiarism
  detection, time-sensitive feedback and grading
  tool.
• Discover international students perceptions and
  experiences of the impact brought by PeerMark
  the new collaborative and peer-marking tool of
  GradeMark
• Produce a case study with good practices and
  guides on how to enhance international student
  experience in Economics studies and an online
  video sharing student feedback (interview with
  international students) based on the findings
  from (2) and (3).

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Methodology Action Research
Project Phases Start End
Phase I Preparation and Implementation Phase I Preparation and Implementation Phase I Preparation and Implementation
1. Plan and analyse project requirements (project team learn how to use GradeMark and PeerMark) and design the setting of PeerMark (Table 2.) June 10 Oct 10
2. Training for GradeMark and PeerMark 3. Design interview protocol and online questionnaires Sept 10 Feb 11
Phase II Data Collection and Evaluation Phase II Data Collection and Evaluation Phase II Data Collection and Evaluation
4. Conduct the learning and teaching with PeerMark 5.Deliver online questionnaires and conduct video interview Feb 11 April 11
Phase III Analysis and Review Phase III Analysis and Review Phase III Analysis and Review
6. Transcribe and analyse data edit videos March 11 April 11
Phase IV Project Dissemination and Final Output Phase IV Project Dissemination and Final Output Phase IV Project Dissemination and Final Output
7. Compile project report and videos 8. Publish paper and presentation April 11 Sept 11
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Assessment for learning?
Extension of academics?
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Embedding Grademark/Peermark

• The project team learned how to use the PeerMark
  Software and in particular tested the way in
  which the PeerMark assessment related to the base
  assignment submission.
• The assessments were set up in Blackboard and
  tested by the project team.
• The pedagogical approach was developed and H.
  Snee designed the Peer Review task in Blackboard.
  This explains the objectives of the peer review
  and the topic to be submitted as the base
  assignment.
• The online questionnaire was developed.

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Peer Review using PeerMark

• The Peer Review was conducted by MBA students in
  mid November over a two week period.
• All 14 students agreed to take part
• Each student reviewed two of their peers papers
  and their own
• The purpose of the Peer Review was to enable
  international students to explore the assessment
  criteria and also to encourage them to be
  critical of their own work. This was clearly
  explained to the students.
• The timing was important completion two weeks
  before first assignment deadline.

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PeerMark software

• Set up base assignment students all submit
  their papers by due date.
• Set up Peer Review to run from next day for one
  week.
• Software allows pairing of students easy for
  tutor to organise.
• Tutor set up a series of 7 questions (each
  relates to one of the assessment criteria used
  for the module) with a 1 to 5 rating scale for
  Q1-6 and a free response question for Q7 which is
  about presentation, structure and referencing.

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Findings - Tutor Perspective

• A minority of students did not submit the base
  assignments so were prevented from reviewing
  other papers.
• Students who submitted did not all have papers to
  review or receive two peer reviews.
• Tutor set up a repeat run so all participated.
• Initial (informal) feedback was that students
  found the exercise valuable for two main reasons
  
• They gained more understanding of the assessment
  criteria.
• They learned a lot from other students
  approaches to the assessment.
• The process requires careful management by the
  tutor.

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Findings Student Perspective

• Objective (2) All international students in the
  MSc programme provided affirmative responses to
  the Turnitin and GradeMark experience - Turnitin
  is a convenient and quick coursework submission
  route fast, flexible and can be done at anytime
  and from anywhere. 80 of the students agree that
  the tool saves resources and time, for example
  they do not need to print out or look around for
  a printer, or travel to campus for coursework
  submission. 60 of the students indicate that (1)
  Turnitin promotes academic writing by preventing
  plagiarism with a powerful text matching tool and
  (2) chance(s) are given to avoid unintentional
  plagiarism before the due date by usingTurnitin.

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• Objective (3) The project findings assert that
  PeerMark facilitates a simple but powerful
  educational principle for international students,
  the Vygotskys ZPD students learning
  experiences are enhanced if they were aided by
  peers rather than working independently.
• peer feedback from students is richer and longer
  than expected
• greater diversity of feedback and possibly
  greater amount of feedback than that available
  from a single tutor
• The PeerMark exercise empowers students to better
  interpret assessment criteria and to better
  review their own work.
• The major concern is not about the level of
  knowledge and capability individuals may have
  before the peer assessment. It is about how
  lecturers prepare and support international
  students e.g. the design of assessment outcomes
  and guided questions for peer assessment.
• A minority of students were not very keen to
  provide lengthy feedback as there were no marks
  attributed.

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Positive Experience of PeerMark
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The Model of PeerMarks ZPD
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QA
Acknowledgement
Dr Esyin Chew echew_at_glam.ac.uk Helena Snee
hrsnee_at_glam.ac.uk
http//celt.glam.ac.uk