This workshop was a great reminder of the value of peer feedback and of the usefulness of dedicating workshops directly to assessment. Firstly, having a time restraint of 30-40 minutes to get a draft ready of one case study for a colleague to review, made you put away any uncertainties you might have and just get started. This provided me with a great start and I felt that I was a lot more certain of the requirements of this part of the final submission after the workshop. The idea of getting feedback from a ‘critical friend’ for improving your practice is also suggested by Biggs and Tang (2011). They highlight the importance of a common framework to do this effectively, which in this case we had through the Case Study template.
This could be directly transferable to my course MA Fashion Design Management. I can see how the students would benefit from this approach. It would be valuable for them to review work in progress and to discuss their work directly with a peer. The challenge would be that some less confident students might be uncomfortable in this situation to share rushed and unfinished work. This could be counterproductive for their participation and confidence. Biggs and Tang (2011) also note the idea of trust between peers for it to be a useful exercise.
There was great value in the setup of being paired with a peer rather than having group discussion. This allowed you to have more in-depth conversations throughout the day about each other’s work. The feedback was valuable, and my work progressed quickly with the help from a colleague. This could prove a useful method for my own students to get them started on the coursework by dedicating a workshop to this. My students are used to group review sessions, but a session to collaborate in pairs could provide more detailed feedback and perhaps be a more comfortable interaction than the group.
Reference
Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. 4th edition. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press