Abstract:

The growing influence of digital technologies on social dynamics calls for the rapid development and implementation of innovative teaching and learning strategies capable of addressing current educational needs (Ramírez-Montoya et al., 2022). In this context, the integration of digital tools across all levels of education has become essential to fully harness their pedagogical potential (García Aretio, 2019).

PeerWise, a web-based platform, enables students to create, answer, evaluate, and discuss multiple-choice questions generated by their peers, incorporating elements of gamification and anonymous interaction among students while maintaining teacher oversight (Denny et al., 2008). The process of generating multiple-choice questions promotes deeper and more autonomous engagement with subject content (Nso-Roca et al., 2020), enhancing students’ problem-solving abilities and capacity for information synthesis (Morales et al., 2021). Additionally, peer evaluation activities require students to justify their reasoning and articulate arguments (Adams, 2021), supporting metacognitive development through interaction (Yang, 2019) and contributing to both self- and co-regulated learning processes, which are critical for academic success (Andrade et al., 2021; Bellhäuser et al., 2022).

This study aimed to examine the potential of PeerWise as a tool to foster active and co-regulated learning by engaging students in a collaborative process of knowledge construction through question design, response, and evaluation. The study involved 103 first-year undergraduate students enrolled in an algebra course. On average, each student contributed 2.9 questions to a shared bank of 299 questions and answered 65.4 questions, achieving a mean success rate of 74.3%. Furthermore, students rated an average of 60.9 questions and provided 5.3 comments containing feedback and suggestions.

Preliminary results allow the identification of distinct patterns of tool use and differences in student performance across the various activities: question creation, answering, evaluation, and commenting. The findings are consistent with previous research, confirming that PeerWise is user-friendly (Ketnor et al., 2022; Nso-Roca et al., 2020), promotes both autonomous and collaborative learning (Kay et al., 2020; Morales et al., 2021), and incorporates self- and peer-assessment practices that support deeper understanding and the development of critical thinking skills (Denny et al., 2008; Hancock et al., 2018; Hilton et al., 2022).

Keywords:

Co-regulated learning, Peer-assessment, PeerWise, Mathematics education, Higher Education.