Title: Alternative assessment methods in technology enhanced project-based learning

Authors: Maria Boubouka; Kyparisia A. Papanikolaou

Addresses: Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, GR-15784 Athens, Greece ' Department of Education, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, Heraklion, GR-14121 Athens, Greece

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate how peer assessment may support the student evaluation process through the various project elaboration phases. To this end, MyProject, a project-based learning environment that aims to support learners throughout the life cycle of a project, has been extended with: a) a peer review process for the project final deliverables; b) a mechanism allowing the provision of peer feedback in the form of agreement, disagreement or neutral. The literature review conducted to support this upgrade of MyProject concerned related work both on project-based learning and peer review systems. The empirical study conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the peer assessment functionalities of MyProject revealed that only a small sample of correct initial solutions may positively influence students' final deliverables through the peer review process. Students were also interested in having access to their peers' ideas although they do not spend much time in offering feedback.

Keywords: project-based learning; PBL; problem-based learning; peer evaluation; peer review; peer assessment; web-based learning environments; peer feedback; technology enhanced learning; student evaluation; peer feedback; virtual learning environments; VLEs; e-learning; electronic learning; online learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2013.057063

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2013 Vol.8 No.3, pp.263 - 296

Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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