Peergrade

Feedback tool with great rubrics might work best for older students

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 2 reviews

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

6–12

Subjects & Skills

Character & SEL, Communication & Collaboration, Critical Thinking

Great for

Assessment

Price: Free, Paid
Platforms: Web

Pros: Simple features and stellar built-in rubrics help students easily access each other's assignments and offer feedback.

Cons: The tool is designed for higher ed and might not offer enough structure for younger students.

Bottom Line: With appropriate teacher support, this could be a powerful way to help teach your students about giving and receiving critical feedback.

Start with Peergrade's rubric library to get some ideas for using the tool: There are some great tools here that might help you structure peer feedback around a lab report, a history paper, or an ELA essay. In addition to some sample rubrics, this page features a list of tips and tricks for how to give and receive peer feedback. It's worth considering how you might structure an entire lesson just around the points listed on this page.

Consider using Peergrade for one round of edits or feedback as part of the development of a major paper or long-term project; introduce a peer review step to encourage your students to weigh in on each other's progress and help them understand how their own work relates to that of their classmates.

Peergrade is a platform for helping students give and receive written feedback on written work. First, teachers set up an account and tune the settings for how and when students can submit their work. Students can then log in and access their teacher's class, and they can interact with other students' submissions and add comments and edits. Teachers can then track their students' comments and their progress, and teachers can share feedback with students. 

Peergrade is mostly used in higher education, and it's used widely at several international universities. Some K-12 schools are also using the system, and the developer's website features third-party research about the effectiveness of peer review in K-12 and higher-ed settings. 

Peergrade was built for higher education, so it's possible that a tool that invites kids to comment on other kids' work won't be a great fit for every K-12 classroom. However, if a tool with these features is what you need, this is a worthy and easy-to-use platform for students to share their work and offer each other feedback. The rubrics included on the site are Peergrade's real standout feature: The sample rubrics are a great tool to help teachers start using formative assessment, and the informative text about offering peer feedback gives an excellent in-depth look at how and why to invite your students to engage in peer review.

Overall, this tool could be a great fit for students whose writing and analysis skills are sophisticated enough that they can offer detailed written feedback. However, if your students aren't quite ready for that, the rubric library is still worth a look. These tips about making feedback constructive and kind are worth reflecting upon, and they're a great starting point for teaching students about the best ways to be a supportive classmate and colleague. 

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

This feedback tool's sleek design might appeal more to older students than younger ones, but it's simple and straightforward to use. 

Pedagogy

Inviting students to evaluate their peers' assignments can be a good way to help students develop empathy and foster attention to detail in their own assignments. 

Support

The built-in rubric library, sample content, and FAQ section are excellent. A little more guidance on when and how to tailor this info for younger students would be a welcome addition.

Common Sense reviewer

Community Rating

Peergrade.io - A Time Saver for Peer Reviews

This tool is a real time saver for me and I have recommended it to other teachers. Prior to using Peergrade.io, I was making digital copies of the students' Google Docs, removing their names and passing them out with a cover sheet to complete peer evaluations. I found Peergrade and it simplified the process. Peergrade did all of the work for me and it keeps track of the evaluations and the feedback about the evaluations. It has enabled me to use peer evaluations more often in my classes.

When I began using Peergrade, the Live Sessions mode was not available. The students had to submit their work on one day and then evaluate on the next day. It was cumbersome. Now that Live Sessions is available, that is the mode that I use all of the time. The only issue is if a student waits too long to submit their assignment, then their assignment does not get reviewed and they are not able to review other papers.

The students that turn in their assignment on time have told me how much they appreciate the feedback and the opportunity to review other students' work. It has given them other strategies for how to write their code.

One recommendation I would make is that prior to using Peergrade the teacher should model good feedback. Even high school students need to be reminded what good feedback is.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Unclear whether users can interact with untrusted users, including strangers and/or adults.
  • Personal information can be displayed publicly.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Traditional or contextual advertisements are displayed.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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