Improving and Encouraging Peer Assessment of Student Presentations

ABSTRACT The author has for some years used student presentation of syllabus material as a method of facilitating the development of self‐learning and presentation skills among final‐year undergraduates. These presentations have been graded by their classmates, both to develop their critical abilities and to increase their involvement and interest in these ‘mini‐lectures’. More recently, a more detailed method of peer assessment has been introduced which has greatly decreased the spread of grades given to individuals by the members of the class; this also resulted in an enhanced correlation of the average grade for a given student from the class with the lecturer's grade for the same student. Previously the students were asked to give a single, overall grade for each presentation; now four aspects were to be graded using a 5‐point Likert scale, with descriptive sentences for each of the four aspects: knowledge, body language, voice and overall effect.