The effect of anonymous peer review on student engagement and motivation

Many practical classes are individual based, and consequently an opportunity is being missed to include collaborative learning which has been shown to increase student engagement. One effective way for students to collaborate... [ view full abstract ]

Many practical classes are individual based, and consequently an opportunity is being missed to include collaborative learning which has been shown to increase student engagement. One effective way for students to collaborate is via anonymous peer review of student work.. Peer review needs to be integrated into the completion of the practical and not seen as a separate entity. Gaming elements have the potential to allow for the extra work to be part of the practical in a motivating, timely and relevant manner.

This project concerns a web-based system with game elements in a computer programming practical lab class for students in higher education. In the domain of computing, code review has been shown to be a crucial skill to develop (code reviewing is the most effective method of producing high quality code).

The system locks later parts of the lab until each student’s code has been reviewed anonymously by her peers and/or a lecturer. The locking mechanism encourages students to review each other’s code. The aim is to create a team atmosphere among the students where collaboration and knowledge sharing is as important as technical competence and completion of the practical lab. A pilot study has been carried out using a prototype and our initial findings indicate an increase in student engagement. The study consisted of a Applied Maths 2-hour programming practical lab. In this lab there were six steps to complete. All steps were locked except the first, when a student submitted the code for that step, the next step was unlocked when another student reviewed their code. The purpose of the review is to be helpful rather than critical.

The student interaction data are logged on the system. The data from the practical are analysed, in conjunction with the students filling in a questionnaire at the end of the practical lab, and the effectiveness of the approach is gauged. The application of the system is not limited to computing, and could be used in a variety of disciplines.