Peergrade Review: flipped classroom grading

***UPDATE THE SITE HAS, SINCE THE TIME OF THIS WRITING, MERGED WITH EduFlow*** (3/24/2023)

Hello and Good afternoon! 

This past month, I had come across a tool that piqued my interest aptly named, Peergrade. This platform allows teachers to create assignments and upload matching grade rubrics and then students will upload their work and are anonymously assigned a peer work to review according to the grading rubric. I enjoy how this tool can be an excellent way to create a Formative assessment for the class; utilizing higher-order thinking skills, and requiring learners to “analyze”, synthesize, and elaborate on what they have learned from prior knowledge.

Luckily there is a free trial for educators to use for up to 30 days! However, once the trial ends, there is a $5/student/year pricing model to continue utilizing the base features. For corporations and larger educational institutions (colleges, universities, etc), custom pricing is possible but will require negotiating with a sales team. If I was teaching learners in Middle school, High School, or Collegiate level (undergrad, postgrad, doctoral) I can imagine that this gives students a give realistic, honest, anonymous feedback on their work and it gives students have the opportunity to self-review as well as a set rubric.

"Sliding" pricing model for the 'Pro' tier, peergrade.io





Peergrade's features per tier, peergrade.io





Pros

  • Allows anonymity for students for biased grading.

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

  • LMS integration for at least 6 different platforms

  • Tutorial videos to show how to use the platform the developer

  • Reports can be produced after submissions

  • Moderators can monitor ‘cyberbullying’


Cons

  • Additional features are hidden behind a paywall

  • Too advanced for younger students (not suitable for elementary school students)

  • May have to download/subscribe to EduFlow additionally

Privacy: ⭐⭐⭐

A student log-in is required for the site. From the language used in their Privacy Policy, I have no reason to believe that there is any student would give personally identifiable information about themselves. Throughout the policy, the acronym COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) is frequently mentioned.


Peergrade's Privacy in regards to COPPA, peergrade.io


Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I cannot confirm if this tool is compatible with mobile devices. Assuming that this is a web-based program, I would think that this is indeed compatible with mobile devices.

There is certainly text because they’ll be referring to it, but with limited exposure to the other multimodal components.


Pedagogical Considerations: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yes, in the very blatant sense, I expect it makes peer review more manageable and takes the burden of grading off my shoulders a bit. But I do see an increase in student engagement because they get to see what their peers wrote, learn from them, and see what reviewers may recall when editing or grading. There are many scenarios that could work out in one of the two, previously mentioned, ways.


Definitely a formative tool indeed. I can see scenarios where the majority of the class scores are below 70% and I have to add supplemental work, review the topic once more before a test, and create an activity that will help retain the information.



Peergrade's Rubric Library, peergrade.io



Data Retrieval: ⭐⭐⭐

Yes, you can receive reports and can export them, but they’re hidden behind the paywall.


Support: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The site is embedded with YouTube tutorials on how to use their own tools and there is a help center along with a 24/7 (exclusive to the highest tier, Pro).



Their Help Center: peergrade.io



In conclusion, I do recommend Peergrade for use in the classroom. The services and features that I like most are the LMS systems that can sync with this digital tool. Canvas, moodle, brightspace, blackboard, and my personal favorite Google Classroom (GC). This LMS is compatible with GC, so the grades wouldn’t have to be manually entered into the GC grade book. And I am sure, we’d all agree that grading is tedious and it's nice when all you have to do is “import grades” to your GC grade book.


This is a program that I would love to facilitate for my learners to review grammar worksheets specifically. But I could honestly do this without the program and use printed worksheets with other minor adjustments. But this because a burden to get started uploading all the worksheets and creating the rubrics. However, I do believe that once it is set up, this will make life so much easier.

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