SPAT - Student Peer Assessment Tool

Funding body

£3,000 internal funding

Start and end dates

2008 - to-date

Research staff

Overview

SPAT is a Student Peer Assessment Tool. A key aim of Higher Education is to develop autonomous students who are able to self-regulate and critically reflect upon their performance. One of the ways to develop this capacity is through peer assessment. This not only has the potential to engage the learner in understanding the often arcane process of judging work against criteria but can result in enhancing their strategies for learning. This process can result in greater understanding of students’ mental conceptions about the discipline or professional practice. Peer assessment can also affect the workload and role of a lecturer – they can become more of a moderator than an assessor. A tool has been developed by students in the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences under the leadership of Dr. Mona Ghassemian and has been used on MSc students to-date with very positive results.