What's Going on Behind the Scenes? Peer Assessment as a Strategy for Enhancing Students' Commitment and Learning Motivation in Working Collaboratively

Abstract

Peer assessment (PA) refers to any arrangement in which learners consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality or success of the learning outcomes of their peers. In simpler words, peer assessment is a form of assessment which allows the learners to provide grades/marks and/or feedback to their peers by assessing their peers' work and contribution. This paper conceptually explains about peer assessment as a strategy to increase students' commitment and motivation when working collaboratively. The first part of this paper discusses about the nature of collaborative in higher education setting. Essentially, peer assessment can be the key to uncovering what happened behind the scenes during the collaborative learning process, i.e. during group assignment or group project. In this research, an exploratory case study design was conducted among higher education instructors at a public university in Malaysia. This research seeks to explore the strategies and tools used by higher education instructors to conduct peer assessment in their teaching, with a focus on innovative approaches and digital tools used by these instructors in multidisciplinary educational contexts.