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InterPro - Online Learning - Tools & Technology - Canvas - Peer Review an Assignment - for Instructors

Peer review assignments enable students to provide feedback on another student's assignment submission. Peer reviews are a tool that allows communication between students and can help students master the concepts of a course and learn from each other. Peer reviews can be assigned to show student names or display anonymously.
Peer Review Documentation for Students

Learn how 
students provide and receive peer review feedback: InterPro - Online Learning - Tools and & Technology - Canvas - Peer Review an Assignment - for Students. It is helpful to review this information in order to guide learners and answer questions as they execute the peer review assignment. 


Peer Review Documentation for Instructors

Documentation provides step-by-step instructions for creating peer reviewed assignments and discussion forums in Canvas. It details all of the setup options available to you for each. 



Peer Review Important Notes & Best Practices for Instructors
  • Include "Peer Review" in the title of the Canvas assignment to indicate that there is a peer review component.
  • Determine if you want to automatically or manually assign peer review. Most instructors choose to Automatically assign peer review, meaning Canvas randomly assigns the peer reviewers. If you would like to intentionally pair learners, to partner strong and weak students, for example, you may choose to manually assign the peer reviewers, so you can socially engineer the partnerships. 

    Learn more about how to Automatically assign and Manually assign peer reviews in Canvas. 
Peer Review Assignment Options

  • For Automatic assignment of peer review, the distribution/assignment of peer reviews takes place on or after the due date. If you want to assign peer reviews prior to the due date, you have to manually assign them. 

  • For Automatic assignment of peer review, determine the number of reviews per user. (For example, if 2, the student will review two other assignments and receive reviews from two other students.).
  • For Automatic assignment of peer review, if a student has not submitted the assignment or submits the assignment after the due date, the student will not automatically be assigned a peer review and you must manually assign one. 
  • You have the option to make the peer reviewed assignments Anonymous, meaning the reviewer will not know whose paper they are reviewing AND the recipient of the peer review will not know who provided the feedback. This is not a commonly used feature. Important note: At this time, Anonymous peer review does not support use of the DocViewer markup tools (to include students, instructors, and TAs). 

  • Discussion forums cannot be anonymously peer reviewed. 
  • If you want to grade/assess the peer review and/or provide a due date for the peer review component of the assignment, you need to create an additional assignment in Canvas. In this case, create a No Submission assignment. Doing this will allow you to set a due date and grade the assignment, without requiring the student to submit any additional material. See How do I add or edit details in an assignment? for more information on how to do this. 

Multiple Peer Reviews with a Rubric

If an assignment uses multiple reviews per user in addition to rubrics, the instructor must toggle between reviewers to see each individual's comments. Instructions for toggling using both the SpeedGrader and Peer Reviews tools are provided below.

SpeedGrader:

  • Click on the peer reviewed assignment you would like to view.
  • Under Related Items, select SpeedGrader.
Select SpeedGrader
  • Canvas defaults to a specific reviewer when the assignment is opened. To view other students, select the reviewer's name. This will allow you to toggle to other reviewers' rubrics and corresponding comments.
Toggle between students

Peer Reviews:

  • Click on the peer reviewed assignment you would like to view.
  • Under Related Items, select Peer Reviews.
Select Peer Reviews
  • A list of all students and their corresponding reviewers appears. Select a student.
  • Select Show Rubric on the right side of the page.
Show Rubric
  • The reviewers' comments can be viewed by toggling to each student's name. If you would like to fill out a rubric as an instructor, select New Assessment. This is an important step when if ignored, you may accidentally overwrite another reviewer's feedback.
Select Reviewer or New Assessment




KeywordsEPD eHelp   Doc ID84532
OwnerLearning Design and Technologies TeamGroupInterdisciplinary Professional Programs
College of Engineering
Created2018-08-06 16:12:04Updated2021-06-30 15:53:30
SitesInterdisciplinary Professional Programs
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