Abstract:

Peer review is an active learning methodology that aims to involve and motivate students to enhance their learning process [1]. Although previous studies have tried to explain the benefits of this tool from a conceptual perspective, it is necessary to provide empirical results to prove how useful it becomes.

Following the lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it is of great relevance to analyse how such activities have changed in the new distance learning environment. The pandemic has led to new educational environments, new challenges, and new learning opportunities [2] that require a thorough analysis on both: the evaluative (cognitive dimension) and emotional (affective dimension) levels.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the influence of peer review among university students, before and during the lockdown. In line with this, comparisons have been made on their learning performance (cognitive) as well as on their motivation and satisfaction. This study seeks to conduct a comprehensive analysis that includes both the evaluation and motivation aspects[3], and how these two factors are interrelated.

In order to conduct this study, two groups of students were selected. The first one was a group of 132 members taking part in the 19-20 academic year (before lockdown). On the other hand, the second group included 61 students during the 20-21 academic year (during lockdown). All results all referred to the same subject (Maths applied to Environmental Sciences) in the University of Malaga.

As key conclusions, we highlight the effectiveness of the peer review tool and the importance of promoting greater proactive involvement by students in the distance education context. However, it has been observed that during the pandemic, peer review potential has been negatively affected by the new distance education context. This is mainly because grade improvement by the implementation of peer review has been less significant with respect to the pre-pandemic situation. In this sense, the subsequent additional workload as well as the lack of face-to-face interaction between students and teachers, have also been reported as the most detrimental factors leading to a lack of motivation and worse results. This research presents an opportunity for academics to propose new motivational methodologies to apply peer-review in distance-learning environments.

References:
[1] Amendola, D., & Miceli, C. (2018). “Online peer assessment to improve students’ learning otucomes and soft skills”. Italian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(3), 71-84.
[2] Green, B. N. (2020). Peer review during the time of COVID-19: Challenges and peer-reviewer acknowledgements for 2019-2020. Journal of Chiropractic education,34(2),105-106.
[3] Cook, B. R., Kamstra, P., Savige, T., Bannan, L. A., Tjandra, E., Alexandra, A., & Cornes, I. (2020). “The impact of peer-review on undergraduate grades when students decide whether to participate”. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 1-17.

Keywords:

Peer review, COVID-19, lockdown, cognitive and affective dimension, learning process enhancement, distance-learnings, challenges.