Peer review, also known as peer response or peer assessment, plays an important role in supporting student writers as they navigate the challenges of the writing process. In Spring 2023, the Howe Center for Writing Excellence, in collaboration with the Center for Teaching Excellence, will launch a pilot program integrating peer response programs Kritik and Eli Review into select high-impact courses and programs at Miami University.

Peer response is the act of students providing feedback to their peers throughout the drafting process to help them improve the quality of their final products and, by extension, their writing processes over time. Peer response is particularly important for writing-intensive courses and collaborative assignments, both of which are established high-impact practices that can promote student retention and learning. Unfortunately, poor implementation of the peer review process and a lack of student understanding of expectations can lead to frustration with the process and poor or unfocused feedback.

The pilot project aims to address these concerns by testing guided peer response programs in select courses at Miami. The proposed pilot project will be split into two stages, the first of which kicks off in Spring 2023. Instructors for ENG 111, BUS 284, MGT 415, PSY 351, and PSY 456/556 will use Kritik and Eli Review to provide students with a peer review platform. Throughout the first stage of the pilot, HCWE and CTE staff will conduct monthly meetings to offer support for pilot participants and to address challenges as they arise.

The second stage of the pilot, scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year, will see the creation of a Faculty Learning Community hosted through the College for Teaching Excellence in which instructors will create an assessment and evaluation project to research the efficacy of these tools in their classrooms.

The pilot program will be assessed throughout the process through the use of student perception surveys, instructor perception surveys, mid-course evaluations, and end-of-semester evaluations. The grant is not to fund the use of these programs indefinitely–rather, it is to assess the efficacy of these tools at Miami University, specifically for larger courses and programs.

More information on peer response, peer review, and peer review platforms can be found on Howe Writing Across the Curriculum’s website.