Peer marking of formative assignments

Abstract

A first year module within the Biomedical Sciences Module portfolio, BM1119 Human Physiology serves as a core module to introduce students to the key concepts of this discipline as a prelude to later more advanced studies in physiology. As part of the delivery of the topic, students are required to undertake four items of practical work in Human Physiology, which serve to address practical skills in human physiological investigation as well as to underpin theoretical content of the module. Of these four items, the first exercise is assessed formatively and the remaining three are assessed summatively, thereby contributing to the module assessment. The current practice is that all work is marked by the staff. The module has a heterogenous population of approximately 200 students. In consequence, there is heavy workload on staff, which slows turnaround time and delays important feedback to students. This compounds the problem of students over-exaggerating the value of the practical report in this module and spending excessive amounts of time on the practical report to the detriment (in the module team’s view) of other work on the module. This project sought to improve feedback on practical reports by enhancing the students’ comprehension of the assessment process and the feedback applied to an assignment. Improvement in subsequent practical reports was one anticipated and immediate consequence of the project. A secondary outcome was an overall improvement in module overall pass rate. Saving of staff time and acceleration of turnaround time were also anticipated.