Anonymity as an instructional scaffold in peer assessment in higher education contexts

Although previous research has indicated that providing anonymity is effective to create a safe peer assessment (PA) setting. However, ensuring anonymity prevents students from experiencing genuine two-way interactive feedback dialogues. The present study investigates how fading anonymity over time can overcome this challenge. 46 Bachelor students in Educational Studies participated in multiple PA cycles in which groups of students assessed each other’s work consecutively in an anonymous and a non-anonymous phase. In this study students’ evolution in peer feedback (PF) quality was measured. The content analysis of the PF messages revealed that the quality of the PF increases in the anonymous phase and that over time the PF quality in the consecutive non-anonymous sessions was of similar quality. Findings suggest that anonymity can be used as a valuable scaffold to ease students’ importance level towards anonymity and facilitate their associated need for practice.

Publication year:2022

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