PEER Project

Do students and faculty grade the same way?

The PEER project is investigating this question through the use of exam questions for the first year medical school class. Using the computer lab in the Library and specially-designed software, the first year class took their (Doctor, Patient, Society) final exam online. The exam, consisting of multiple choice and essay questions, allowed students to save their responses after each section.

Once all students completed the exam, the responses were shuffled for the evaluation portion. Half the class was randomly selected to view the anonymous essay answers of their classmates. Each student evaluated eight essays (four answers to each of two questions), rating them based on model answers and grading criteria.

All student evaluations were also anonymous. All of the essays were also evaluated by faculty members. Students were able to view both faculty and student responses to their essays when the project was completed. A second exam and evaluation session will be held in the Spring. Once these results have been added to the past semester’s results, we may know the answer to the question regarding faculty and student grading.