Abstract:

One of the main learning outcomes in Engineering and Science degrees at the university, common to many subjects, is to demonstrate the ability to express technical information in a structured, precise and correct manner. The preparation of laboratory practices reports by students is one of the key activities to develop this capability. In this work, we evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating a peer review activity in laboratory practices for 4th course Mechanical Engineering students, aiming at improving students’ skills in the preparation of technical reports. For this purpose, students are asked to review in group the report submitted by other group of students after each laboratory practices session. A Moodle Workshop activity was designed, which integrates a detailed rubric, to guide the students to carry out the evaluation of the reports in a systematic way. The mark resulting from each evaluation is compared with the final mark given by the lecturer. If it disagrees in less than 1 point out of 10 (above or below), the group that reviewed the report obtains an extra point in its final mark.

The usefulness of the newly implemented methodology was measured through three parameters: the grades obtained by the students, the rate of participation in the activity, and the degree of satisfaction of the students with the activity, measured through a survey. A high rate of participation was achieved, and the marks were high overall. In addition, 95.7% of the students considered that carrying out the correction of classmates' laboratory reports was positive in their learning. Also, 84.2% of the students indicated that the level of extra work required to complete the proposed activity was acceptable or minimal. All these indications show that the peer review activity developed helps to significantly improve the ability of the students to deliver well-prepared technical reports.

Keywords:

Laboratory practices, technical reports, peer-review.