Title: Are student peer assessments reliable? Analysis of a classroom-based management course

Authors: Kenneth David Strang

Addresses: Regional Higher Education Center, State University of New York, 640 Bay Rd., Queensbury, NY 12804, USA; APPC Research, University of Phoenix, 1625 W. Fountainhead Pkwy Tempe, AZ 85282, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate if undergraduate students could assess peer work in a school of business and economics course which involved several long essay-type reports. A key challenge was the volume of grading since there were three written assignments spread throughout the course. The secondary goal was to explore if the learning management system (LMS) could facilitate the peer assessment process and if it could calculate a fair grade representing the quality of peer assessment work. The techniques applied to examine the hypotheses were interrater reliability, correlation, and pair-wise t-test estimates. The results supported the hypotheses that students reliably assessed their peers; these scores were consistent with the professor, and with the LMS.

Keywords: management courses; student assessment; peer assessment; learning management systems; LMS; interrater agreement reliability; student grading; peer grading; undergraduate population; higher education; classroom management; business education; correlation; pair-wise t-test.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2014.059872

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2014 Vol.5 No.1, pp.91 - 112

Received: 02 Jul 2013
Accepted: 25 Oct 2013
Published online: 21 Jun 2014 *

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