NYU Classes: Creating an assignment with Peer Assessment


Within the Assignments tool, instructors have the option to enable Peer Assessment. This optional feature expands the grading process for assignments, allowing students to review and grade each others' submissions prior to final review by the instructor. This peer assessment process can be conducted anonymously or not.

With this functionality enabled, students become eligible to participate in the peer assessment process after successfully completing their assignment submissions. Peer assessment begins once the assignment submission period has closed, at which point students must review a predetermined number of their peers' submissions (as established by the instructor). The grades that students provide for their reviews are then averaged to form a tentative final grade for each submission. Once students have assessed each others' work, instructors may then begin a final review process, wherein they may enter their own comments and/or adjust final submission grades, which they can release, along with associated peer reviews, to the original submitter.


Creating a peer-assessed assignment

To set up peer assessment for an assignment:

  1. Within the Assignments tool, select Add to create a new assignment.

  2. Enter a Title for your assignment.

  3. Provide the OpenDue, and Accept Until dates for the assignment.

    Note: The "Accept Until" date is the closing date for assignment submissions. Peer assessment will begin immediately after the assignment closes.

  4. Choose the desired Student Submission type.

    Note: Student resubmission options are NOT compatible with peer assessment.

  5. Select the drop-down menu next to "Grade Scale" and choose the option for Points. Enter a point value in the box provided.

  6. Provide general Assignment Instructions in the provided rich text editor.

    Tip: You may wish to use this space to notify students of their expected participation in peer assessment.

  7. If you would like to incorporate TurnItIn's originality detection service into your assignment, select the checkbox for Use TurnItIn.  For information on setting up TurnItIn in NYU Classes, see the Creating a TurnItIn assignment knowledge article.

    Note: TurnItIn reports will be available for viewing after peer assessment has ended.

  8. If you would like to add this assignment to your course site's Gradebook, select the option to Add Assignment to Gradebook.

  9. Beneath the "Peer Assessment" header, select the checkbox for Use Peer Assessment.

    The Use Peer Assessment option

  10. A series of settings will expand below. Proceed with configuring the peer assessment settings for your assignment.


Peer assessment settings

The following options can be configured for your peer assessment assignment:

The Peer Assessment settings. See information below.

Once all desired settings have been configured (and all remaining Assignment options have been set), select Post to publish the peer-assessed assignment.  It will become available for students to begin the submission process once the Open Date has been reached.


The peer assessment process

Once the submission process has ended and the Accept Until date for the assignment has passed, the peer assessment process will begin. For information on the student peer assessment process, see the Using Peer Assessment as a student knowledge base article.

Note: Only students who have completed the assignment submission process may participate in peer assessment.


Instructor review

Once the peer assessment period has ended, instructors can begin the final review process for the assignment. There are two components to this review process for peer-assessed assignments: reviewing submissions/peer assessments and adjusting/releasing final assignment grades.


Reviewing submissions/peer assessments

To review student submissions along with their associated peer assessments:

  1. Within the Assignments tool, select Grade beneath the title of the desired assignment.

    The Grade link

  2. On the following screen, you will see several columns dedicated specifically to the peer assessment process.  You may see which students are assigned to review which submission (Assigned to), the review status/grades that they have provided (Review Grade) and the averaged final grade based upon these peer reviews (Grade).

    The Grade screen showing assessment fields. See information above.

  3. Select the name of a reviewer from the "Assigned To" column. 

  4. From here, you will be presented with the peer assessment review screen.  At the top of the screen, you will see the names of both the original submitter and the peer reviewer.

    The Peer Assessment Review screen

    Below, you may view the instructions that you have provided for the assignment/peer review process and access the original assignment submission.

    An example of assignment instructions and submission

  5. Beneath the assignment submission, you will see the peer reviewer's grade and provided commentary.

    The peer reviewer’s grade

  6. Should you wish to discard this student's peer review (thereby discounting their review grade from the averaged assignment grade and preventing the original submitter from seeing the reviewer's comments), select Remove Review.

    Note: While you may view peer reviewers' grades/comments during the peer assessment period, it is highly recommended that you refrain from discarding reviews until after the peer assessment period has ended.

  7. Removed reviews will still appear within the assignment's Grade screen; they will, however, be crossed out.

    An example of removed reviews

    You may restore a removed review by returning to the review and selecting Restore Review.

    The Restore Review button

  8. To continue to the next student review, you may either return to the assignment's Grade view, or simply select the Previous or Next buttons within the current review.

Previous, Return to List, and Next buttons



Adjusting/releasing final assignment grades

Once you have reviewed all submissions/peer assessments, you may add instructor comments for students, adjust final assignment grades for students, and release these grades to the original submitters.

To do so:

  1. Within the assignment's Grade screen, select Grade beneath the desired student's name.

    The Grade link

    Note: The student Grade screen is not available while the peer assessment period is still active.

  2. On the following screen, you may provide comments to the student within the "Instructor Summary Comments" field.  Below, you may optionally upload an attachment to the student.

  3. To adjust/override the pre-populated average assignment grade for this student, enter a new value into the "Grade" field.

    An example of overriding the grade by typing in the new grade

  4. Select Save and Release to Student to release the grade and the peer reviews to the student.

    Note: If you do not wish for the peer reviews to be seen by the student, you may remove the peer reviews for each assignment submission (as detailed in "Reviewing Submissions/Peer Assessments").

    Additional Note: Returned peer reviews will respect the anonymity settings established during peer assessment assignment creation.