Value of engaging students to provide feedback

Abstract

Background: Peer-assessment may enhance students’ metacognitive skills, their understanding of the grading process and ability to evaluate others. However, students may either under-grade or over-grade assignments. The objectives of this study were to compare tutor vs. students grades for MBBS group oral presentations and to assess the quality of oral presentations. Summary of Work: • All tutors and MBBS Year 3 students (N=210) received the grade descriptors to guide the oral presentation marking in following categories (1) content, (2) audiovisual material, (3) presentation and communication and (4) self-reflection. • Quantitative data analysis was used to compare peer assessment in each category and overall. Summary of Results: The peer assessment grades were higher than the tutor grades in all categories for 13 groups (p<.001). The maximum grade difference was 10.76% for the overall group score. Only 3 out of 110 graded items were under-graded (2.72%). 85.7% of groups achieved a distinction. Discussion: Through peer assessments, students could learn strategies how to improve their own work; however students inclined to give higher marks than tutors during the peer assessment process. Further analysis is needed to determine if higher marks correspond to over-grading. Conclusion: The study found differences in grading between tutors and peers with the peer assessments scoring higher in majority of graded items. Despite these discrepancies, presenting groups achieved a distinction for their oral presentation showing a very good quality standard of their work. Take-home Message: Whereas results showed that grades assigned by students tend to be higher, students may benefit from peer assessment and learn how to improve their assignments to achieve a distinction in their group projects.