Design Peer Graded Assignments (PGA)

Contents

Top tips for PGAs
PGA structure
Design effective rubrics
Videos explaining PGAs
Screenshots from learners perspective

Peer Graded Assignment steps have been designed specifically for ExpertTracks.

PGAs give learners an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the material covered and skills developed within a course. Learners can gain a deeper insight into the quality of their work through sharing it with their peers, and in turn, be opened up to other perspectives by reviewing their peer’s submissions.

In contrast to Peer Review, Peer Graded Assignments are summative (offering an alternative to a Test). Learners grade each other against a rubric.

Each individual PGA can be made up of multiple prompts to which learners respond. Each prompt can have several associated rubric criteria against which learners will be graded (and grade their peers).

Each prompt can be:

* Single line (i.e. URL, short sentence or title/sub-title)
* Multi-line (i.e. short paragraphs, explanation, context)
* File upload (this can be any file type e.g. pdf, image, short video. Limited to 50MB per file)
All prompts build into one single assignment submission.

PGAs appear across three sequential steps within the platform (outlined below).

Learners need to mark over 90%+ of steps as complete across the entire ExpertTrack, attempt every assessment question (tests and/or PGAs), and score an average of at least 70% across all assessments (tests and/or PGAs), to be eligible to gain certificates at both individual course level, and overall ExpertTrack level.

Top tips for PGAs

Use PGAs sparingly. PGAs are summative assessment and likely require a significant time investment from learners - too many will stall progress
Consider where you locate your PGA. Putting a PGA at the very end of an ExpertTrack means learners may be held up waiting for feedback from others. Somewhere in the middle of the entire learning journey can help avoid this.
Think carefully about how many task Prompts and grading criteria (rubric) you include.
Carefully calculate ‘learner time on task’ both for submitting an assignment, and grading others. Factor this into overall stated learning time.
Create clear up-front instructions explaining how learners will be graded
Trial the PGA by completing it yourself.
Contain PGAs within their own activity to make them visible to learners.
PGAs appear across three mandatory steps. Consider adding in a non-assignment specific Article step reiterating what PGAs are and how they work, and an assignment-specific follow-on Discussion step to give learners opportunity to reflect on the task (template copy below)

PGA structure

Peer Graded Assignments are made up of three mandatory steps within Course Creator.

1. Assignment brief step

Added manually (we suggest you lay this out in an article step, but you may wish to use video or audio plus written instructions instead)
Explains assignment and its relevance to the course
Explains what to submit (how many prompts learners must respond to)
Presents grading rubric used
Information step explaining the entire assignment - nothing submitted here.

Download a PDF example of an assignment brief (including prompts and rubrics) kindly reproduced with permission from The British Council.

2. Peer Graded Assignment Step

Added manually (select Peer Graded Assignment)
Title the step with your overall PGA title (ie not an individual prompt)
Learners submit their PGA here, addressing all task prompts
Learners will have to choose a title for their own submission

3. Peer Grade Step

Added automatically added in Course Creator after manual creation of the preceding assignment step.
Once a learner submits their assignment they are automatically directed to this step
This is where they review other learners’ feedback on their own submission.

PGAs are relatively complex to design. We suggest you use our off-platform manuscript to design and perfect your rubric before moving to building in Course Creator. ExpertTrack Resources: Manuscript for PGAs

Design effective rubrics

Each assignment prompt can have one or criteria against which it is graded according to a rubric. A clear explanation of the assignment including the grading criteria should be included in the Assignment Brief step. Use constructive performance levels for the rubric item: excellent, good, acceptable, and needs improvement. Each rubric item uses a numeric rating scale. This provides a range of selections to describe the quality of the work submitted. Each rubric item corresponds to an assignment prompt or the assignment overall.

Choose different types of rubric criteria:

Evidenced criteria - this simply asks a learner to confirm whether part of a task prompt has been submitted according to instructions.
Performance - measurable and qualitative levels for subjective feedback on the learner’s submission with a point value for each level, highest being most valuable, lowest when not demonstrated / present (highest points for exceeding or clearly fulfilling the criteria. Then lower points for not, or failing to achieve the criteria.

Each assignment can have multiple rubrics per submission prompt - so you can design them to give constructive feedback but also ensure the grades being given are fair and accumulate to give learners a grade that helps them learn from the experience (and not punish).