Newsletter October 2022: Eduflow and Peer feedback

Eduflow

Teachers and students at SDU have access to the learning platform Eduflow, a very simple and intuitive platform. On Eduflow you can create courses, add activities, and invite students. The activities can be for instance texts, videos or submissions. But it can also be feedback activities, including Peer feedback – we will revert to that later.

In connection with feedback, Eduflow offers so-called “Flows”, i.e. combinations of 2-4 activities that come after each other in a certain sequence. Eduflow has taken over Peergrade and integrated it in Eduflow. Therefore, if you are already familiar with Peergrade, you will recognize Peergrade in the Flows. 

For an introduction to Eduflow we suggest you watch this short video on YouTube: Getting started with Eduflow – it is only 03:34. It shows you how to set up activities and Flows, and how to invite students. 

To get access to Eduflow, contact the local e-learning staff at your faculty – they will probably also help you with an introduction or a course on Eduflow. If you want an Eduflow license, you can also contact Servicedesk.

The e-learning consultants at SDU Centre for Teaching and Learning are happy to help you get started with Eduflow, and we can also tailor-make a course especially for you and a group of your colleagues. We also offer guidance on how you can work effectively with Peer feedback in your teaching, and thereby give your students an opportunity to work more with the professional material.  

Before week 42 (i.e. 17th October) you will be able to find our course on Feedback, Peer feedback, rubrics and Eduflow on SDUUP's overview over courses. The course is offered in December. If you are interested in a similar course earlier or something else in this field, please contact Nicolas Marinos.

Feedback in Eduflow

Itslearning allows teachers to give feedback to students 1:1, but not as groups. This is precisely what makes Eduflow special, as this platform offers several types of Peer feedback, including feedback groupwise, for instance one group giving feedback to another group.

Eduflow’s feedback functions, the so-called Flows, stem all but one (flaging) from the previous Peergrade, and these Flows offer many good varieties of Peer feedback. Flows are actually just a specific sequence of activities in connection with feedback. In relation to activities Eduflow distinguishes between 5 types of feedback:

• Peer review flow
• Peer and self-review flow
• Instructor review flow
• Self-review flow
• Group member review flow

It is the first type, Peer review flow¸ which is commonly known as Peer feedback.

Peer feedback

In short, Peer feedback is about students giving feedback to and receiving feedback from their peers. In this newsletter we will first look at Peer feedback from a didactic angle and then from a practical angle. This means that we will start with a very short text on Peer feedback from a didactic perspective and then give you interviews with two teachers who have used Peer feedback in different ways.If you wish a short video introduction to Peer feedback in Eduflow itself, you will find such an introduction in one of their own and more comprehensive videos on YouTube: Creating a course (11:35). During the period of time 05:56-09:00 the video presents how to create a Peer review Flow, which is Eduflow’s term for Peer feedback. You can also watch the video Building a Peer Review Process with Eduflow (17:58).

Peer feedback from a didactic perspective

Seen from a didactic angle Peer feedback holds a large number of advantages. Let us just touch upon some of the many advantages: Besides producing larger learning outcomes – under the right conditions – Peer feedback can also constitute a sort of formative evaluation (evaluation of the process), so that the students do not have to wait until their exam or the final exercise (product evaluation) to obtain a feeling of their professional level. 

In the case of written assignments Peer feedback can serve as an inspiration to the students and improve their academic writing skills. Finally, Peer feedback is an obvious way to practice SDU’s underlying principles of education, active teaching and learning.

One of the positive side effects of Peer feedback is that it reduces the teachers’ workload in relation to giving students feedback on written assignments. But please notice that this effect is not the primary motif for the teachers interviewed below.

For Peer feedback to succeed and contribute to the students internalizing the professional evaluation criteria, which are at the center of Peer feedback, the students must first be trained to give feedback – this is crucial if Peer feedback is to be successful. A recent study (2022) states: 

“It is important to train students on how to offer good feedback and how to make quality comments. The teacher’s task therefore involves planning the structural design for a Peer feedback process as an activity which is relevant for learning, considering training and offering the space and time necessary to carry out mixed-channel feedback: orally and in writing, even though this requires more time”
Source: Armengol-Asparó, C., Mercader, C., & Ion, G. (2022)

The evaluation criteria at the basis of Peer feedback can be presented by the teacher in different ways, as shown in the two interviews below. One typical basis for evaluation criteria is the use of a so-called rubric, which can be a sort of a checklist, that the teacher distributes to the students. The checklist can be used in the students’ feedback to their fellow students, but it can also serve as a guideline before the students start on their assignment.

But, as already mentioned, Peer feedback holds many other didactic advantages. For instance, as a tool for formative evaluation and academic writing, as illustrated in these interviews with two teachers. 

Peer feedback – Experiences from practice – two interviews with SDU teachers 

We have interviewed two teachers who have experience with Peer feedback, so that Peer feedback does not stand as just a theoretical concept, but in relation to actual teaching practice and experience among teachers at SDU. One of the two teachers has many years’ experience with Peer feedback, the other is new in the field of Peer feedback and Eduflow.

Find the two interviews in the right column. A big thank you to both Gry Green Linell and Anette Stenslund for making themselves available for interviews about their experiences with Peer feedback.

Reference

Armengol-Asparó, C., Mercader, C., & Ion, G. (2022). Making peer-feedback more efficient: What conditions of its delivery make the difference? Higher Education Research and Development, 41(2), 226-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1840527