Online Peer Assessment in a First Cycle University Degree – Which Challenges?

Abstract

Authenticity and transparency constitute two essential dimensions in the digital assessment of competences. Authenticity emphasises the importance of the complexity inherent to online assessment tasks related to real life contexts and are recognised as relevant by students, teachers and potential employers. Transparency has to do with the students’ involvement in the assessment tasks, through the democratisation and knowledge of the used strategies. Self-, co- and peer assessment are powerful instruments in the transparency operationalisation. The current study presents the peer assessment (PA) implementation process in a first cycle university degree curricular unit, in online context. The study was planned according to the following purposes: (a) to identify peer assessment potentialities and constraints in first cycle university degrees; (b) to analyse the questions that are brought forward among students by the application of a scoring rubric; (c) to reflect on the obtained results, aiming at the improvement of the implementation process and its applicability to other curricular units. In this essay, the authors present and discuss the obtained results, and propose recommendations to improve the quality of the peer assessment process.