How do I build a Peer Graded Assignment on the platform?

Before you start building your Peer Graded Assignment, please make sure you have read our guidance and examples in How do I design an effective Peer Graded Assignment. It will give you clear guidance that will also increase the likelihood of your step passing our internal QA process.

Who can add peer graded assignment steps?

•  Anyone with Author or Organisation Admin permission can add peer graded assignment steps. 

Peer graded assignments have three parts: 

1. Brief - an overview of the whole assignment (Article step). 
2. Assignment - submission space for each assignment prompt and the associated rubrics.
3. Grade - automatically added space to allocate, review and grade peer submissions.

1. Brief - use a standard Article step

• Each peer assignment should also have an Article step before submission. This explains the assignment brief and the grading rubric that will be followed. 
• To keep this flexible for different types of assignments we recommend using a standard Article step to set the brief (although you can also use another step, for example a Video). 

2. Assignment - Create Peer Graded Assignment step 

• There is a new content type located in Course Creator called ‘Peer graded assignment’ (PA) 

Note: this step type can be added to the ExpertTrack courses only 

• The new ‘Peer graded assignment’ option can be selected from the ‘Add a step’ button, this leads to a form which enables the ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step to be created 
• Each Peer Graded Assignment step created automatically generates (for now) two linked steps: ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ and ‘Peer Grade’. It is expected that in the future there will be two different steps: ‘Assignment submission’ step which will replace the current ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step and ‘Assignment Brief’ which will be essentially an article with a broad description of the assignment.   
• This is where the Peer Graded Assignment activity and steps can be designed and edited

How to add, edit and remove prompts and rubrics

The ‘Edit prompts and rubrics’ button is located within the ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step. 

Adding a prompt/rubric

1. Select ‘Edit prompts and rubrics’ on ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step page
2. Select ‘Add prompt’
3. Select prompt’s submission type from the dropdown menu, provide short text describing the prompt in ‘Text’ field and (optionally) a detailed description in an ‘Additional text’ field
4. Add at least one rubric item for the prompt. Provide the title for it as well as the grades with descriptions. Grade is a number of points the submitter will be awarded for the action from the corresponding Description field. It is recommended to use  two grades form each rubric items: 
• 0 points - no evidence of following the instructions / not submitted
• 1 point - the learner has successfully followed the instructions
• Additional grades can be added - but be mindful that mathematically, learners need 70% or higher to pass the assignment, too many options per rubric item increases the likelihood of subjective grading. 
5. (optional) Select ‘Add grade’ to assign more than two grades in a current rubric item
6. An assignment prompt can have several rubric items. Select ‘Add rubric item’ to add another rubric item for the prompt. 
7. Select ‘Save prompt’ to save changes and create a new prompt

To add rubric items or grades for an existing prompt, please use an Edit prompt screen 

Editing a prompt/rubric

1. Select ‘Edit prompts and rubrics’ on ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step page
2. Select the Edit prompt button (a pencil icon) next to the prompt you want to edit
3. Update the fields that need a change
• (optional) Add new rubrics or grades if needed
4.  Select ‘Save prompt’ to save changes 

Remove a prompt

1. Select ‘Edit prompts and rubrics’ on ‘Peer Graded Assignment’ step page
2. Select the Delete prompt button next to the prompt you want to delete
3. Select ‘Delete prompt’ in a confirmation page

Removing a prompt deletes all rubrics and grades related to it

This action is not reversible

Peer submission and grade steps are linked automatically

You’ll notice in Course Creator that Submission and Grade steps are linked. Both linked steps can be previewed, but cannot be deleted separately. In order to delete a peer graded assignment you need to delete the submission step - this will remove both steps. 

3. Grade - Automatically added

The Grade step is added automatically with the assignment submission step. The two are linked and the grade step always follows after the assignment submission step.

Learner interface for grading a peer’s assignment:

Please note: these images are designs, the final product will look/feel similar but may have some differences. 

Current limitations 

Initially, there will be some limitations when building Peer Graded Assignments in Course Creator: 

• There won’t be an option to add an overall rubric to assignment steps, this means that when learners are peer grading they will only see each rubric item and prompt relevant to them
• Briefs need to be in a separate Article step - although other steps can also be used for this purpose, for example Video, Audio etc.