Peer Wise: A Peer Grading System that Promotes Active Learning Carol Kominski, Ph.D. Assessment Specialist

Learning Outcomes 1. Understand features of PeerWise system. 2. Apply knowledge to use major system features.

Who’s Responsible for PeerWise? Created by Denny, P., Hamer, J., Luxton-Reilly, A. & Purchase, H. (2008). PeerWise: Students sharing their multiple choice questions. ICER ‘08: Proceeding of the fourth international workshop on computing science research (pp.51-58). New York, NY: ACM. Hosted by the University of Auckland at

PeerWise is Active Learning Student construction of multiple choice questions (MCQs). Active learning through Construction and explanation. Answering and commenting. Responding and rating.

PeerWise Details Site: To get a student account: You must have an instructor who enrolls you in a course for which he/she is an instructor. To get an instructor account: Contact Paul Denny at

More about PeerWise on YouTube Interview with Paul Denny, creator of PeerWise – ature=related ature=related Interview with Simon Bates who uses PeerWise with physics students at University of Edinburgh – ture=relmfu ture=relmfu PPT explaining educational basis for PeerWise –

How to register and enroll in trial course as student 1. Go to this site. 2. Click to register.

Select a username. 3. Choose a username. (Recommendation : use UNTHSC userid.) 4. Click on Select name.

Create a password. 5. Type in password of your choice. 6. Type in password again. 7. Save password

Enter Course ID. 8. Enter Course ID (4 digit number) 9. Click on “Join course.”

Provide Identifier After Joining Course. 10. Type identifier (username). 11. Click on “Submit identifier.”

Create account by confirming registration. 12. Click on this button to create account.

Log into your account.

After you log in: Page showing classes in which you are enrolled

What you’ll see after entering a course

What you’ll see when you click on “Your questions.”

When you start creating questions

You can provide up to five alternative choices.

You provide an explanation and can classify question into student-created categories.

Questions you can answer

Answering a question

After answering a question, see the correct answer.

After seeing the correct answer, you get a chance to rate difficulty and quality of question.

You can select just “recall” questions.

Or just “blood pressure” questions

Important Details About PeerWise A student can only register in PeerWise if an instructor has previously enrolled that student in a course. PeerWise registration is institution-specific. Username and password only work for UNT, not UT. If instructor enrolls a “student” as administrator, administrator can do everything instructor or student does except create a course. A student registration enables student to create questions, answer questions, provide feedback, earn badges, see how many points are earned, and see leader board. Student will not know who creates questions or provides feedback on questions he/she creates.

Downloading Student IDs from Blackboard 1.Go to Grade Center>>Full grade center>>Work offline (Top right corner)>> Download>>Choose “comma delimited” (option 2) and submit. 2.Copy downloaded file into Word. 3.Copy and paste directly from Word into identifier list in PeerWise.