1. PeerWise Student Instructions
This presentation is all about PeerWise which is a major component of your experience in (Course name). PeerWise is being used because of your instructor’s desire to promote active student learning in this class. The ultimate objective of this experience is to improve your higher order thinking or HOT skills.

2. PeerWise is a technology that facilitates
Student construction of multiple choice questions (MCQs).
Student answering of MCQs with immediate feedback.
Student interaction via sharing comments and rating questions.
Instructor understanding of class strengths and weaknesses in knowledge and thinking.
Finally, PeerWise enables the instructor to see what students are thinking, to understand their strengths, and to identify areas where there might be misconceptions or incomplete understanding. This will enable the instructor to improve the class, clear up misunderstandings, and provide constructive feedback.

3. What you will learn How to set up your account and enroll in PeerWise.
How to construct your own questions.
How to answer and sort other students’ questions.
How to rate other student’s questions.
How to use other PeerWise features when constructing, answering, and commenting on questions.
What you will learn here are the basic mechanics of PeerWise: setting up your account, constructing questions, answering other students’ questions, rating other students’ questions using a consistent scoring guide, and accessing the major features of the system when constructing, answering, and commenting.

4. Site for PeerWise
Get to this site in two ways (
From the assignment instructions for each week.
From the course navigation menu in Canvas.
The site for PeerWise is specific to UNT institutions. I recommend that you bookmark it. You can also just click on the PeerWise link within the PeerWise module in Canvas.

5. How to register and enroll
1. Go to this site from the course Navigation menu in Canvas..
After going to the site, click on “Registration” in the lower right corner of the login screen.
2. Then click to register.

6. Begin registration Click to begin.
Begin your registration by clicking on the “Begin Registration” button.
Click to begin.

7. Use UNTHSC EUID for username
Next, select a username and type it into the space on the lower left of the screen. Remember this username should always be the same as your UNTHSC user id which you use to log into Canvas. After typing in your user id, click on “Select Name” in the bottom middle of the screen.
Then click on Select name.
Use UNTHSC user id.
Click on selection.

8. Create a password Create a password and confirm it.
Next you will be asked to create a password. Go to bottom left of screen, type password and then confirm it by typing it in again. Then click on “Save password” at bottom center of screen.
Create a password and confirm it.
Create a password and confirm it, then save it.
Click to save.

9. Enter Course ID Enter in Course ID found in Getting Started Module.
Next screen asks for a course ID at the bottom left. The course ID for your (Course Name) class is ####. After typing this number in, click on “Join course” at the center bottom of the screen.
Enter in Course ID found in Getting Started Module.

10. Provide Identifier for Course
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Next type in your identifier. This will be the same as your username or UNTHSC user id. Click on “submit Identifier” in bottom middle of screen.
Click to submit.
Identifier is the same as your UNTHSC username.

11. Confirm registration details
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Next click on “Create my PeerWise account” in bottom middle of screen. After clicking, you will be taken to the login screen.
Click on this button to create your PeerWise account.

12. Log into your account. Log in.
Log in (right of screen) with your user id and password you just created.

13. When you first log into PeerWise
After you log in, click on your course to get into the shell for your course.
Click on the correct course.

14. After you get into the Course
After you get into the course, you will then see a screen with three major sections:
1) your questions that you create,
2) answered questions from other students that you have already answered, and
3) unanswered questions that other students or your instructor have created for you.
Note that you have as yet no questions that you have created and none that you have answered but there are a number of questions that your instructor has created. Click on “unanswered questions.”

15. When you click on “Unanswered Questions”
These questions are demonstration questions. Initially, you will see the first 10 questions in reverse chronological order to when they were created. As questions get answered, other statistics appear and you will be able to sort questions by number of answers, help requests, most recent comments, number of comments, difficulty rating, and overall quality rating.

16. Selecting questions by topic
Click on “Demo-questions-only” to see examples of HOT questions.
Instead of seeing all the questions, you can click on a topic and see just the questions on that particular topic. Initially in the class, all you will see are “demo-questions-only.” Answer and review these questions to see examples of HOT questions pertaining to the subject matter of your course.

17. After clicking on a response to a question, find out if you answered correctly.
When you answer a question, you will find out immediately if you answered that question correctly.

18. Question author gives explanation of correct answer.
You will see an explanation of that answer by the question author.
You can try to improve on author’s explanation.

19. Improving the author’s explanation
You will actually be given an opportunity to improve on an author’s explanation.

20. Viewing others’ comments and adding your own.
You may respond to others’ comments, add a new comment, and follow the author of this question.
You can view others’ comments on the question and add to these comments. You can also introduce a new comment. You can also follow the author of this question and in the future select questions first by this author.

21. You have an opportunity to rate each question
Decide if the question was easy, medium, or hard.
Evaluate its quality using scale guide.
You have an opportunity to rate each question. Decide for yourself whether each question is easy, medium, or difficult.

22. Scale Guide for Quality Ratings
[0] Confusing question and no explanation.
[1] a. Clear question with missing, incomplete, confusing, or poorly reasoned explanation, or
b. Clear question and explanation but unrelated to topic.
[2] Clear question related to topic, clear & complete explanation, deals only with recall of facts.
[3] Clear question related to topic, clear & complete explanation, deals with understanding of concepts or ideas.
[4] Clear question related to topic, clear & complete explanation, deals with application, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation skills.
[5] Clear question related to topic, clear & complete explanation, deals with application, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation skills - particularly outstanding because of ability to provoke thought.
However, before evaluating each question, consider the following rating guide which not only gives higher points to clear questions with good explanation but also higher points to questions that call for higher order thinking skills beyond recall.

23. To see how you have performed on questions you have answered…
See your results.
After answering questions, you can then go back to the “Main Menu” and see the questions you have answered along with information on the performance of other students who have answered those same questions. Under the column “Your result,” a green check mark indicates that your answer is probably correct whereas a red x means that your answer was probably wrong. I use the word probably to indicate that these questions are being tested and some of them may be bad questions with answers coded correct erroneously.
A green check mark indicates that your answer is probably correct, a red x means that your answer is probably wrong.

24. More detail on your results: It’s a complex world.
More detail on your results is provided in the chart as more and more information from other students is collected. These are the major categories into which answers fall.

25. When you’re ready to write questions
Click on “Main menu.”
Click on “Main menu.”
Now you’re ready to write your own questions. Once again go back to the “Main Menu.” Go to the section called “Your questions.”

26. Getting into the question creation area
Click on “Create new question.”

27. Create your question.
Then create your question by typing your question in as carefully and thoughtfully as you can. In Canvas, go into the “PeerWise” module and click on “Dos and Don’ts for creating your own MCQs.”

28. Then create your alternatives.
You can create from two to five alternatives.
After you have created your question, you must then create your alternative choices. You can select from two to five alternatives. Keep in mind, however, that two choice alternatives like true-false, yes-no are usually relatively easy recall questions and generally are much less challenging or thought-provoking than questions which require one to carefully consider a number of plausible alternatives.

29. Provide an explanation.
If you create a question that is more than just straight recall of facts, explain the right answer and also give reasons why the other alternatives are wrong.
You need to provide an explanation of the answer you have coded as correct. It is also a good idea to provide an explanation why each alternative that is not correct is wrong. This is decidedly the case if your question requires comprehension, application, analysis, or evaluation of alternatives.

30. Classify your question. (Super important!!!!)
PeerWise allows up to five topics. However, for this class, use only one.
You should classify your question under one of the topic areas provided by your instructor. Otherwise, you may not receive credit for the question in grading and students will not know how to find it if they try to search for questions by topic.