Reflection Phase for Peer Assessment Assignments

This article will describe what the Peerceptiv Reflection Phase is and how to build an assignment with a Reflection Phase. 

What is the Reflection Phase?

The reflection phase is an optional assignment phase that will serve as the “final step” in the peer assessment process. Adding this phase will require students to reflect upon what they have learned during the assignment, including what they learned from the review comments and ratings they received, and describe any changes they may make for future projects or revisions. 

When you select to add a reflection phase to an assignment, you’ll be provided with a reflection phase rubric that you can choose to keep as-is or alter to your preferences. The rubric consists of reflection questions that students will be required to answer while viewing their received review comments and average rating scores. 

If you add a reflection phase, students will be able to see their comments and average rating scores while completing the reflection, but they will not see their grades until they have completed the reflection and results are released. When included, the reflection is part of the task grade and students must complete all required reviews, feedback tasks (if applicable), and the reflection in order to receive a task grade of 100%.

Students will be able to complete their reflection after the review phase is over. Depending on the assignment components, they may be able to complete the reflection during the feedback stage (if both are enabled in the assignment or during a team member evaluation (if it is part of a group peer assessement with team member evaluation and a reflection stage).

How to Build an Assignment with a Reflection Phase

1. Build a Custom Assignment: You must select to build a custom assignment during the assignment creation process in order to have an assignment with a Reflection Phase. You cannot choose a standard workflow and add a Reflection Phase later in the settings.
2. Assignment Type: Select Peer Assessment. Currently the reflection phase is only available for peer assessment assignments, but may eventually become available for Team Member Evaluation assignments. 
3. Live Presentations: Select either Yes or No. You may add a Reflection Phase to a Live Presentation assignment. If you are having students participate in Live Presentations for this assignment, select Yes. If you are not having students participate in Live Presentations for this assignment, select No. 
4. Submission: Select Individual Students or Student Groups for who submits. Do not select Instructor Upload if using the Reflection Phase. 
5. Review: Select Peer Reviews or Instructor-Graded Only. If doing a typical peer assessment assignment, then select Peer Reviews. If planning on only having instructors grade the student submissions, then select Instructor-Graded Only. 
6. Feedback: Select either Yes or No. Feedback requires students to rate the quality and helpfulness of their peer comments and reply back to their reviewers. Feedback is often recommended because it holds student reviewers accountable for providing quality reviews. The Reflection Phase requires student submitters to read their comments and reflect upon them, but does not require students to rate those comments for helpfulness. You may want to consider your assignment’s goals and objectives and choose not to include a feedback phase if you are having a Reflection Phase, as the functionality is similar and may put additional burden on the students. 
7. Reflection: Select Yes.

Complete the rest of the assignment settings as usual. Please see our article on Editing the Settings and Deadlines for more information on particular settings in the settings wizard. 

Create and Edit Rubrics

Go to the Rubric tab in the left side bar. You’ll need to make sure you have a Submission Rubric in place - students will use this rubric to review their peer submissions. Click Edit to edit the Submission Rubric and see our Build a Rubric article for more information about this. The Reflection Rubric has three comment prompts in place already and you can edit these prompts by clicking on the small pencil icon for each prompt.

Student View

Students will see the Reflection rubric prompts on the right side of the screen and their average ratings, received comments, submission, and any available resources on the left side of the screen. They will answer each prompt on the Reflection Rubric and click Next until finished.

Students may be able to complete the reflection phase at the same time as they are completing other phases. The reflection phase will always be after the review phase but may coincide with a team member evaluation or feedback stage.