Transitioning from Peer Review

Peer Review was retired on March 25, 2009. Peer Review forums are no longer available online. Peer Review data will be archived and no longer retrievable on July 15th, 2009. Please contact us as soon as possible if you need to access any Peer Review data.

Many of the needs met by Peer Review can be met by other, newer Catalyst tools or other Web applications. We want to make the transition to the appropriate tool as smooth as possible for you and your participants. This guide offers suggestions for using different Catalyst Web Tools to meet your collaboration needs or accomplish your instructional goals.

The guide is organized by common goals or use cases, suggests other tools that support these goals, and include links to help you learn more about the new tools. If you would like additional assistance with the transition from Peer Review to other tools, our support staff are available to consult via email or in person. Send an email to catalysthelp@u.washington.edu or drop by the help desk in Odegaard library.

Collect Files or Assignments

If you used Peer Review to collect files or assignments from students in the past, we suggest that you switch to Collect It, a Catalyst Tool specifically designed for online file submission. A Collect It dropbox allows you to manage due dates, see at-a-glance which files have been submitted on time, and provide feedback online and return files. You can also give colleagues access to view and comment on submitted files. Learn more about Collect It.

Facilitate Journaling and Reflection

Many used Peer Review for students to post journal entries or short reflective writings. The following tools can be used to support journaling or reflection online:

GoPost discussion boards

If the journal entries or reflections can be public for peers to read, then a GoPost discussion board is the right tool for you. Participants can post thoughts as a new conversation, or in response to a prompt, and others can reply with comments and questions. Learn more about GoPost.

Blogs

Another option for public journaling you can consider is a blog, either for the group, or individual blogs. You can set up Word Press, or participants can create blogs using an established blog-service, such as Blogger.

Collect It dropbox

For private journaling or reflective assignments, consider having participants turn in their documents to you using Collect It. After downloading the file to review it, you can respond to their thoughts in Collect It by posting a comment on their assignment submission page. Learn more about Collect It.

Provide Overall Feedback on Writing

Instructor feedback

To provide overall feedback on assignments, you can create a Collect It dropbox to collect the assignments online. With Collect It, you can have a one-on-one dialogue with a participant about the submitted file. You can post comments about each submission online, or comment directly in the submitted file, and then return it online. You can also manage due dates, see at-a-glance which files have been submitted on time, and give colleagues access to view and comment on submitted files. Learn more about Collect It.

Peer feedback

If you used Peer Review to facilitate overall peer feedback on student assignments, you can use GoPost discussion boards to accomplish the same thing. Students can post their written assignments as a new conversation or attach a document to their post that other board members can download to view. Peers can then leave feedback for the student as replies in the conversation. Learn more about GoPost.

You can also facilitate peer feedback on assignments with ShareSpaces. ShareSpaces creates an online file share for group members, and supports versioning. Students can upload their assignments to the shared space, then download another student's work. After reviewing their peer's work, they can leave feedback directly on the file. To return the file with feedback to its owner, the reviewers can upload their commented version to shared space; all versions remain available in the version history. Learn more about ShareSpaces.

Provide Detailed Feedback (paragraph or sentence level)

For feedback on documents at the paragraph or sentence level, word processing programs provide the best alternative to Peer Review. Use the word processing program itself to insert comments and feedback directly in the submitted document. For example, both Google Docs and Microsoft Word allow you to insert comments into the document to leave feedback at the paragraph or sentence level. In Microsoft Word, you can also turn on "track changes" to keep track of the edits you make to the document. Learn more about Google Docs or Microsoft Word. You can use one of several Catalyst Tools -- Collect It, GoPost, or ShareSpaces -- to support the feedback process by collecting, posting, or sharing the documents online.

Instructor feedback

To provide detailed instructor feedback on assignments, you can create a Collect It dropbox to collect the assignments online. With Collect It, you can post comments about each submission online, or download the file, comment directly in the submitted file, and then return it online. You can also you can have a one-on-one dialogue with a participant about the submitted file online, manage due dates, see at-a-glance which files have been submitted on time, and give colleagues access to view and comment on submitted files. Learn more about Collect It.

Peer feedback

If you used Peer Review to facilitate detailed peer feedback on student assignments, you can use GoPost discussion boards to accomplish the same thing. Students can attach or provide a link to a document in their post so that other board members can download it. Peers can then leave feedback for the student either as replies in the conversation, or directly in the document, and attach their modified version when replying. Learn more about GoPost.

You can also facilitate detailed peer feedback on assignments with ShareSpaces. ShareSpaces creates an online file share for group members, and supports versioning. Students can upload their assignments to the shared space, then download another student's work. After reviewing their peer's work, they can leave feedback directly in the document. To return the file with feedback to its owner, the reviewers can upload their commented version to shared space; all versions remain available in the version history. Learn more about ShareSpaces.