In this post, Dr Jane Hislop and Valentina Joseph discuss their ongoing reflections around the use of peer review within formative assignments in the online MSc Clinical Education programme. They presented this approach at the Learning and Teaching Conference in June 2025. This post is part of the ‘Transformative Assessment and Feedback’ Learning and Teaching Conference series.
In our earlier blog post, How do we do effective feedback?: A practical example, we outlined our approach to using peer review that we introduced within our online MSc Clinical Education programme in 2021. The students on our programme are from a global community of healthcare professionals who are also educators and we are keen to role model approaches to assessment and feedback that are underpinned by pedagogy.
Peer review in formative assignments
The approach we use within our formative assignments is based on the work of Nicol (2020) where learners share a piece of their academic work with a group of their peers via an online discussion board. They are then asked to comment on the work of two of their peers. Following this, students are asked to share their reflections on what they would do differently with their own work having reviewed the work of their peers. This process allows learners to compare their work with that of others. Finally, a tutor provides each discussion group with a summary of their feedback.
Designing the assignment in this way exploits the natural comparison processes, both formalising these reflections and making them explicit (Nicol, 2020). According to Nicol, this allows students to actively engage with the feedback process, and to generate their own internal feedback (Nicol, 2020). We have integrated this approach within all year 1 courses and many of the year 2 and 3 courses of the MSc Clinical Education Programme.
Our presentation at the Learning and Teaching Conference shared our reflections on how this approach has been working for students and staff over the previous four years. Since the L&T Conference, we have furthered our reflection thanks to support from Valentina Joseph, a Year 2 MBChB student at Edinburgh Medial School who joined our team as part of an INSPIRE summer studentship programme. Valentina ran two focus groups with staff (academic and professional services) to explore their experiences of the peer review process.
Findings from the focus groups
1. Lack of student engagement: One of key findings from the focus groups were staff’s concerns about the lack of student engagement with formative assignments. Staff attributed part of this to students’ not prioritising these activities due to their formative nature. Since our students are often undertaking their studies while working full-time, they are already juggling many other competing priorities.
2. Feedback culture and prior feedback experiences: Another important other aspect, which staff highlighted may impact on students’ engagement, relates to feedback culture and learner’s prior experiences of feedback. Staff discussed that students may come from a culture, or have had prior experiences, where feedback is viewed as being negative or has been used in a punitive way as opposed to being supportive and developmental. Another part of this culture is viewing feedback as something that should come from a tutor, as providing feedback requires a certain level of expertise and authority. This sentiment was discussed as something that the staff themselves felt before they had experienced using the peer review approach within the programme. After experiencing the peer review approach as a tutor, they discussed that they now recognise and appreciate the value that this approach has for student learning.
3. Building sense of community: Staff reported feeling that the peer review approach was an excellent way to build a sense of community amongst learners. Through providing each other with constructive feedback within a group discussion board, students were able to engage in meaningful discussions which not only helped develop their feedback literacy skills and but also supported the building of a ‘safe’ and collaborative learning environment. It was discussed that, through the peer review activities, a ‘safe space’ for learners was created where they were comfortable to express and share their views, which may in turn may help them develop their confidence in giving and receiving feedback.
Reflecting on our approach
What we have learnt from our experiences of this approach is that for this to be successful, careful planning and scaffolding of peer review activities are needed. Firstly, the expectations of what feedback is needs to be managed and learners need to be introduced to the purpose of the approach and what this entails. In addition, careful facilitation by the tutors is needed to create a supportive community between learners and between learners and educators where there is trust to give and receive feedback.
Through experiencing giving and receiving peer feedback, staff reported that learners were also developing skills which would be important within their own roles as educators. However, one area that staff highlighted for future development related to how we support learners in giving constructive feedback. This was an exciting area that was discussed at the Learning and Teaching Conference around tools which can be used to provide learners with feedback on their feedback.
Finally, while one motivation for initially introducing this peer review approach within our programme was to reduce staff workload, it was clear from the focus groups that this was not achieved. However, staff reported that the value of the approach meant that it was worthwhile as they not only saw the benefits it brought to learners but it also helped them themselves to develop their understanding of ‘good’ feedback.
References
Hislop, J., Fawns, T. (2022) How do we do effective feedback? A Practical Example. Teaching Matters Blog. University of Edinburgh (31st October 2022). [online] Available from: https://www.teaching-matters-blog.ed.ac.uk/how-do-we-do-effective-feedback-a-practical-example/
Nicol, D. (2020) ‘The power of internal feedback: exploiting natural comparison processes’, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(5), pp. 756–778. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2020.1823314.
Valentina Joseph
Valentina Joseph is a Second Year MBChB student at Edinburgh Medical School. Valentina was awarded an INSPIRE Studentship in 2025. Valentina was involved in undertaking the focus groups and write up of the peer review research project. She has previously awarded a commendation of her SSC1 research project. Coming from a medical background, she is developing her interests in clinical academia, and research around Teaching and Learning.
Jane Hislop
Dr Jane Hislop is Director of the PG Certificate in Simulation Based Clinical Education and senior lecturer in clinical education at Edinburgh Medical School. Jane teaches on online distance-learning programmes for those involved in undergraduate and post-graduate education of health professionals (including qualified doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and allied health professionals). In addition, Jane works part-time as a Clinical Education lead in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy within NHS Fife Scotland. Jane has a particular interest in peer assessment and feedback, as well as Simulation methodology.
