Strategies and mechanisms for electronic peer review

We have implemented a peer grading system for review of student assignments over the World Wide Web and used it in approximately eight courses in computing and electrical engineering. Students prepare their assignments and submit them to our Peer Grader (PG) system. Other students are then assigned to review and grade the assignments. The system allows authors and reviewers to communicate, with authors being able to update their submissions. Unique features of our approach include the ability to submit arbitrary sets of Web pages for review, and mechanisms for encouraging careful review of submissions. Electronic peer review facilitates collaborative learning in several ways. First, there is the obvious fact that students can learn from their reviewers' comments. Second, students help each other to improve their communication skills. Third, in team projects, peer review allows team members to be assessed by each other. Finally, peer review makes it possible to break up a large project into small chunks. In fact, new releases of PG are being developed in exactly this way.