Incorporating AI and learning analytics to build trustworthy peer assessment systems

Abstract Peer assessment has been recognised as a sustainable and scalable assessment method that promotes higher‐order learning and provides students with fast and detailed feedback on their work. Despite these benefits, some common concerns and criticisms are associated with the use of peer assessments (eg, scarcity of high‐quality feedback from peer student‐assessors and lack of accuracy in assigning a grade to the assessee) that raise questions about their trustworthiness. Consequently, many instructors and educational institutions have been anxious about incorporating peer assessment into their teaching. This paper aims to contribute to the growing literature on how AI and learning analytics may be incorporated to address some of the common concerns associated with peer assessment systems, which in turn can increase their trustworthiness and adoption. In particular, we present and evaluate our AI‐assisted and analytical approaches that aim to (1) offer guidelines and assistance to student‐assessors during individual reviews to provide better feedback, (2) integrate probabilistic and text analysis inference models to improve the accuracy of the assigned grades, (3) develop feedback on reviews strategies that enable peer assessors to review the work of each other, and (4) employ a spot‐checking mechanism to assist instructors in optimally overseeing the peer assessment process. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Engaging students in peer assessment has been demonstrated to have various benefits. However, there are some common concerns associated with employing peer assessment that raise questions about their trustworthiness as an assessment item. What this paper adds Methods and processes on how AI and learning analytics may be incorporated to address some of the common concerns associated with peer assessment systems, which in turn, can increase their trustworthiness and adoption. Implications for practice Presentation of a systematic approach for development, deployment and evaluation of AI and analytics approaches in peer assessment systems.