CPR Calibrated Peer Review rescues writing in large classes

What is CPR?  Web-based program that enables frequent writing assignments even in large classes  discipline independent and level independent  create your own writing assignments or use the assignment library

How does CPR work?  Students receive assignments and submit their written work  Students evaluate against calibration essays  Students evaluate the work of peers  Students evaluate their own work  Typically students then rewrite their essay using the critical evaluations as guide

How are Students graded?  how they evaluate the calibration essays  how consistent they are within the evaluations of the peer essays  the evaluations of their peers (<50%)  Self-evaluation  (possible instructor override)

CPR home   Tour  White Paper  Library

To Use CPR  Sign up with Institutional Coordinator (me)  Names and UINs of all students  Create “course”  Choose assignment(s) from Library  or  Create new assignment  Give students timeline for completion (2 weeks) of each assignment

Making CPR Assignments  Most complicated part of CPR  1. Go to CPR Workshop to learn how  2. Dive in and learn while doing  Create 3 calibration essays  Setup instructions for students  Gather source materials  Create evaluations- 1 for grammar, 1 for content

CPR in practice at UIUC  4-5 profs in Geology use it  50/50 large/small classes  Used 3 years now in large (~360+) enrollment class  Started with “canned” ie. Library assignments  Now have 5-6 institutional assignments

CPR in use at UIUC   Use a writing assignment + set of review questions that fit well with your course + your teaching goals. For GEOL 118, Fall, 2005 assignment worked MUCH better than Fall, 2004 assignment because of the better fit to the course. In addition, using an assignment that emphasized personal thoughts + opinions made plagiarism more difficult compared to using a fact-based writing assignment, e.g., describe a major historic natural disaster.

More using CPR   Provide clear + specific instructions for students, including the basis for their grading such as the specific nature of review questions   Provide students the opportunity to appeal any grading they consider unfair, however students need to support their appeal with a detailed explanation. Instructor reviews grade appeals and can increase grade, decrease grade, or leave grade unchanged. Instructor responds to student appeals with a detailed explanation of instructor review + action

Addressing student concerns   Students express concerns about possible unfairness of being graded by fellow students. After CPR assignment was completed, there were very few student complaints or student requests for instructor review of possible unfair grading   Must clearly explain that most of grade is NOT peer evaluations

Keys to success   Using an assignment that emphasized personal thoughts + opinions made plagiarism more difficult compared to using a fact-based writing assignment. Clear + specific instructions for students, including the basis for their grading such as the specific nature of review questions   Allow appeals of any grading they consider unfair, students need to support their appeal with a detailed explanation. Instructor can increase grade, decrease grade, or leave grade unchanged. Respond to student appeals with a detailed explanation of instructor review + action

Cheating, Plagiarism  Program does a good job of detecting and flagging collusion  Proper choice of assignment, topic reduces plagiarism  Peers detect plagiarism, false notes in essays very well  Instructor should still evaluate at least 10% of essays

Resources  CPR Home  My  White Paper  NSF proposals and dissemination proposals