Peer Review

Overview

Peer review allows students to read each other's assignment submissions and provide structured feedback — a star rating (1–5) plus written comments. Reading how others approached the same problem deepens your understanding and builds critical thinking skills.

The tutor decides which assignments have peer review enabled and how many peers each submission should be reviewed by.

How peer review works

1. You submit your assignment before the peer-review opens.
2. Once the submission deadline passes, the system assigns each student a set of anonymised peer submissions to review (typically 2–3).
3. You complete your reviews before the peer-review deadline set by the tutor.
4. After the peer-review deadline, you can see the feedback you received on your own submission.

Reviewing a submission

1. Go to the assignment page and click Peer Review (this tab appears once peer review is open).
2. You'll see up to 3 anonymised student submissions assigned to you.
3. Read each submission carefully.
4. Give a star rating from 1–5 based on the quality and completeness of the work.
5. Write a comment — what was done well, what could be improved, anything you found insightful. A good review is at least 2–3 sentences.
6. Click Submit Review for each submission.

Receiving feedback

Once the peer-review deadline passes, click the My Feedback tab on the assignment page to see the ratings and comments your classmates left on your submission. Peer feedback is anonymised — you will not know who wrote which review.

The tutor may also factor peer review participation and quality into the overall assignment grade. Submitting no reviews, or reviews with only one-word comments, may count as incomplete participation.

Tips

• Be constructive, not critical. Focus on how the work could be improved, not on what's wrong. "Adding more evidence for argument X would strengthen this" is more useful than "This is too short".
• Write the review you'd want to receive. Specific, actionable feedback is far more valuable than "Good work" or "Could be better".
• You learn by reviewing. Pay attention to how your peers approached the problem differently — it often reveals approaches you hadn't considered.