On 8 January I gave a presentation at the Centre for Instructional Technology’s (NUS) annual BuzzEd event.

I spoke about incorporating peer review in a class, as well as tools that Turnitin provides for managing the process. I don’t believe technology is the tool to fix all pedagogical needs. In fact, the most rewarding aspect of how I do peer review comes in the small group workshop phase of the exercise. However, Turnitin helps me clarify assignment expectations, distribute papers, and gather feedback on each paper.

Here is my abstract, as well as the documents I supplied to participants.

Abstract: Peer review is the standard for scholarly production. However, too few lecturers incorporate peer review into student writing, despite growing evidence of its benefits for students. In this presentation, I outline some of these benefits before showing how to manage the peer review process with the online plagiarism prevention tool Turnitin.com. I demonstrate the functionality of Turnitin beyond spotting plagiarism by showing past student work, including peer reviews and before-and-after essays. I also share student feedback on the exercise. Overall, I hope to encourage listeners to incorporate peer review into the student writing process, and I show how the potential chaos of this complex exercise can be effectively managed with Turnitin.

I was proud to present with a former student, Michelle Tan, which made this presentation a particularly great experience.