Katherine Bathgate and Haelee Fenton recently conducted a staff development workshop on the use of SPARKPLUS a web based self and peer assessment instrument.
The software enables students to confidentially rate their own and their peers’ contributions to a team task and takes much of the work out of using peer and self-assessment with groups. Haelee and Katherine demonstrated the programme’s features and discussed their use of it in two different units before providing an opportunity for participants to experiment with the software.
Staff members who attended the workshop indicated their intention to incorporate SPARKPLUS into their own units to streamline the process of including peer assessment and minimise student complaints. Thanks to Katherine and Haelee for a useful and well organised session.