Student guide

In a Workshop you not only submit your own work, you also assess the work of your classmates according to an assessment form prepared by the teacher – and receive their assessments of your work. Peer assessment helps you understand the quality criteria, see different solutions and learn to give constructive feedback.

The five phases

A workshop runs in phases, which the teacher switches. At the top of the workshop you see the Workshop planner: a table with the phases, the current phase highlighted, and a list of your tasks in each phase (done tasks are ticked).

Phase	What you do
Setup phase	The teacher prepares the workshop. You can read the instructions, but not yet submit.
Submission phase	You submit your work (and, if required, assess example submissions for practice).
Assessment phase	You assess the submissions allocated to you (and possibly your own – self-assessment).
Grading evaluation phase	The platform calculates the grades; the teacher checks them. You wait.
Closed	You see your grades and the feedback you received.

1. Submitting your work (submission phase)

1. Read the Instructions for submission and note the Submissions deadline.
2. Click Add submission.
3. Enter a Title, write the text in the editor and/or add files (attachments).
4. Click Save changes. Until the deadline you can use Edit submission to improve it.

Note: If the teacher has enabled anonymity, reviewers do not see your name and you do not see the names of the authors you assess. Do not write your name into the file or the text in that case.

Sometimes the teacher first asks you to assess Example submissions. You then compare your assessment with the teacher's reference assessment – it is a good way to calibrate before you assess real submissions.

2. Assessing the work of others (assessment phase)

1. When the assessment phase starts, the section Assigned submissions to assess lists the works you should assess (usually 2–4).
2. Read the Instructions for assessment.
3. Click Assess next to a submission. The submission is shown at the top, the Assessment form below.
4. For each aspect of the form choose a grade or level and write a comment. Depending on the grading strategy the form can be a rubric, a list of criteria with points, a yes/no checklist or comments only.
5. Add an Overall feedback for the author.
6. Click Save and close (or Save and continue editing to continue later). Until the Deadline for assessment you can open and change your assessment.

How to give good peer feedback

• Be specific: refer to a concrete part of the work ("the legend of the map does not explain the colour scale").
• Be balanced: name what is good and what could be improved, and suggest how.
• Use the criteria in the form, not your personal taste.
• Be respectful – write as you would like to be assessed yourself.

3. Your grades (closed phase)

In a workshop you receive two grades:

• Grade for submission – for your own work, usually the (weighted) average of the assessments you received, possibly adjusted by the teacher.
• Grade for assessment – for the quality of your assessments: how close they were to the assessments of other reviewers of the same work. Careful and fair assessing therefore improves your own grade.

When the workshop is closed, open it: under Your submission you see the received assessments with all comments (Feedback by …) and under Your grades both grades. The grades are also transferred to Grades.

Tip: Read all received assessments, not only the grade. Different reviewers often notice different things – together they give you a precise picture of what to improve in the next assignment.