Day 1, Monday 24 June 2024

4:30pm-6pm BST//11.30am-1pm EDT

Session Chair: Stefania Paredes Fuentes (University of Southampton)

Speakers:

Where are my peers?: Peer review assignments in large classrooms

Evelyn Nunes (Virginia Commonwealth University)

I evaluate the results of different grading schemes, across multiple semesters, for a critical thinking assignment in a large classroom of principles of microeconomics. The goal of this assignment was to enhance student’s critical and reflective thinking, while not imposing a grading burden on the instructor. The grading schemes evaluated were self-grading and peer-grading, both of which allow students to take a more active role in their learning, with peer-grading also connecting them to each other, even if in an anonymous way. I find that the self-graded assignments resulted in inflated grades, and had a grade distribution similar to a complete/incomplete grading scheme. The peer-graded assignments had less of a grade inflation problem, and several students reported they understood better the material after reading their peers’ answers, with many providing positive feedback supporting each other. However, several students never went back to the assignment to grade their peers. These results are likely a reflection of the many challenges that large classrooms face, and the lack of incentives students had in terms of being accurate while grading.

Understanding Online Peer Assisted Learning with Forums in the “Digital Era”

Lory Barile (University of Warwick) and Atisha Ghosh (University of Warwick)

In this paper we estimate the relationship between different types of engagement activities in forums designed to facilitate peer assisted learning and students’ performance. We consider a core econometrics second year module and different metrics to proxy students’ engagement with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) resource, that is the total number of views and the words count of messages posted in the forums.

Our results suggest that forums have a significant positive correlation with students’ performance; students are selective of the forums activities; and students from different nationalities adopt different learning strategies to study on the module adjusted to their needs. We also conduct a preliminary text analysis on the messages included in the forums to illustrate how different learning dimensions in peer assisted learning environments can be linked to transferable skills. This analysis shows that messages posted in the forums are mainly linked to the cognitive and meta-cognitive learning dimensions, though the social and interactive dimensions cannot be neglected. From an educational perspective, our findings suggest the necessity for VLEs tailored to promote active and interactive learning, fostering improved student performance and facilitating the acquisition of soft skills. 

Investigating the effectiveness of a group assessment design in fostering group dynamics, experiences and skills with diverse group members

Paulina Navrouzoglou (University of Glasgow), Lovleen Kushwah (University of Glasgow) and Geethanjali Selvaretnam (University of Glasgow)

Students in an undergraduate economics optional course were given a sustainability-related group project comprised of an interview podcast about an urgent environmental problem in a country and a policy brief to suggest a solution. This group project was followed by an individual assessment requiring the students to reflect on their learning experiences through the group project. The purpose of the proposed assessment group design was to examine whether a long-term interaction among group members and a high weight on group assessment can improve group dynamics, experiences and skills in groups with diverse members. The following reflective questions mainly guide our research: How did the two group assessments help you: a) learn more; b) improve the dynamics of working in teams; c) resolve issues with team members due to long-term interaction; and d) overcome challenges of working individually. The application of the group assessment design has shown interesting and encouraging positive outcomes regarding group dynamics, experiences and skills in groups with diverse members.