What is peer feedback, and how can you get the most out of it? Peer feedback is a proven way to help students develop essential academic skills. It doesn't replace feedback from your tutor. Instead, it's a method of helping you learn how to construct and revise your own work through providing feedback for your fellow students. It's also not just about writing: peer feedback will help you with a range of skills and attributes you will need at university and in the workplace beyond.
The tabs of this guide will support you in getting the most out of peer feedback. The sections are:
Peer feedback is a tried and tested way for you to develop the specific skills you need in your subject area. As well as this, providing feedback for someone else will help you improve your own editing and proofreading so that becomes easier for you to revisit and improve your own work. There is also good evidence to show that taking part in peer feedback sessions will help you use feedback from your tutors and lecturers more effectively.
In some countries, like the USA, peer feedback is a standard method of teaching writing in universities. In fact, most students there will have to take (and pass) a writing module as part of their degree. Because of this, there is a lot of research demonstrating how useful peer feedback (sometimes also called ‘peer review’) is for university students. To find out more, you can check out this research on peer review carried out in Scotland.
Peer feedback will probably involve you reading, observing or analysing someone else’s work, and then giving them constructive comments so that they can improve it. You will probably be shaping those comments in response to a set of criteria given to you by your tutor. In this guidance, we call it ‘the rubric’. It’s important to remember that peer feedback is NOT the same as tutor feedback: with peer feedback, you are not being asked to mark or grade someone else’s work (this is a called ‘peer assessment.’) You are also not expected to have the same levels of experience and expertise as your tutors – so you won’t be asked to comment on anything you don't already know how to do, or should know how to do. Essentially, you are performing the role of a helpful reader: letting the author know how you experienced their work.
As we’ve already mentioned, it can help you improve your writing and other types of academic work – not least because it will make it easier for you to revisit and revise things before you hand them in. Your tutor may also link the rubrics used in peer feedback sessions to the mark schemes or learning outcomes for your module. This will help you tailor your work to the specific criteria that will be used to assess it. Peer feedback also helps you develop as an independent, reflective learner too – vital for success at university. Finally, giving and receiving constructive feedback is a skill valued by employers, so it will definitely help you in the workplace too.
There are various stages involved in peer feedback – writing or creating a piece of work, feeding back on someone else’s work and, finally, reflecting on the feedback you have received and planning what to do with that information going forward. Click through the hotspots in the timeline below to see how it all fits together (an accessibility link is provided below the image).
Click here to view the accessible version of this interactive content
The first thing to remember is to read and follow the instructions given to you by your tutor. This might seem obvious, but you would be amazed at the number of students who don’t do this!
Your instructions may include how you need to structure your feedback. At Southampton, this might involve using the IEI model. This stands for Identify, Explain and Improve. It means that you will do the following when structuring your comments:
Following the IEI model will help you create full and helpful feedback – you'll find examples at the bottom of this page. However, always check the instructions first to see if your tutor wants you to provide feedback in this way. If you are applying peer feedback to contributions to a group project, for example, your instructor might suggest a different model.
Always write the sort of feedback that you would like to receive for your own work. When we have run peer feedback pilot schemes, some students see the tasks and feedback sessions as an extra chore to get out of the way as quickly as possible. This means that they don’t produce high-quality work for other people to review and don’t bother giving full and useful feedback. Don’t be that student – it means you will waste your time AND the time of the person you are giving feedback to, who may have put a lot of effort into their task.
Remember: you’re not expected to have the same knowledge as your lecturers – and we won’t ask you to offer feedback on anything beyond your level of expertise. Instead, focus on having a helpful and constructive conversation with another student about their work, and think about how to improve your own at the same time.
Example 1: I found it very difficult to follow what the writer was trying to tell me. The sentences did not follow on from one another but jumped between topics and ideas. Some were also tricky to understand and, overall, this meant I could not follow the points the writer was making. Next time, the writer must ensure each sentence is grammatically correct and makes clear, logical sense. They should proofread their writing carefully to ensure that the overall meaning of the piece is clear to the reader, with each point following on logically from the one before.
This is a piece of student feedback that has been written using the IEI model. Highlighted in green (sentence 1), you can see that they have identified the problem (it was tricky to discern what the writer was trying to say). Then, highlighted in blue (sentences 2-3), they have explained why the issue was problematic. Finally, highlighted in yellow (sentences 4-5), they have suggested how it could be improved. The next example will follow the same pattern.
Example 2: A few of the points the writer tries to make could be better supported or proved. For example, the paragraphs about bamboo fabric being a more sustainable option are interesting, but the evidence is weaker than it could be. There are only two citations, and these look like they might come from clothing websites and manufacturers. For their revision, perhaps the writer could find a few academic articles that talk about the sustainability of bamboo fabric. Maybe they could use data that compares bamboo fabric to synthetic fabric, as this would strengthen the point they're trying to make.
You can see from this that feedback doesn't need to be long and involved - but it does need to explain clearly what the problem is and provide a constructive solution for improvement.
Our final example demonstrates how the IEI model can be used to communicate the strengths you observe in a peer's writing.
Example 3: The writer was very effective with flow and structure in the draft. The topic sentences for the paragraphs helped me understand exactly what each paragraph would focus on. It also worked well that each paragraph finished on a strong critical point. The only exception I saw was at the end of paragraph 3. It's not as clear what the takeaway of that one was, so maybe add a sentence to state it more clearly as you did in the other paragraphs.
Here, the peer reviewer feels the draft is working very well, but they still take the time and consideration to be specific in identifying and explaining what they have noticed. An unspecific comment like 'Great work, keep it up' won't be as helpful because the writer might not understand what they are doing effectively. Even though the feedback is largely positive, the reviewer does identify one area to suggest a constructive change, too. Remember, even a strong piece of writing can be improved!
One of the skills you will develop as a result of doing peer feedback is better metacognition. This means that you develop greater awareness of yourself as a learner – and what you need to do in order to improve further. However, this will not happen by itself. After you have received feedback on your work (and you should do this whether the feedback is from a peer or from a tutor) you should take some time to think about:
It’s important to understand that you are not just a passive recipient being told what to do – you are an active player in the process who gets to choose what happens next.
If you are doing peer feedback as part of your course, you will probably be asked to spend some time reflecting on the feedback you have received and what you will do as a result of it. It is important you do this even if it is not compulsory: you will not develop your metacognitive skills unless you practise them.
We suggest working through these three questions, but you can add others if you’d like. It won’t take you long. Keep a log of your responses so that you can look back and see the progress you are making. You might like to use one of our feedback trackers and the Feedback Decoder to help you.
A self-coaching tool such as the GROW model can help you align any goals you set with tangible next steps.
The way of working we mainly refer to throughout this guide uses Blackboard to digitally facilitate uploading work and feedback.
If your tutor chooses to use Blackboard for peer feedback, it also means that the whole process can be carried out anonymously: you won't know whose work you are feeding back on or who your reviewer is. As you will have already seen, the students who took part in our pilot study really valued this anonymity and used it to try new things and push beyond their comfort zones.
The two videos below will walk you through the process of using Blackboard for peer feedback. Your module lead's Blackboard page might be set up slightly differently, so pay attention to the tools being demonstrated rather than their exact location in the example.
Always remember to read the instructions your tutor has given you, and diarise any key dates and times so you don't miss deadlines.
