Peer Review of Course Materials

Why engage in peer assessments of course materials?

This peer assessment practice is an opportunity to have a colleague analyze your syllabus, a specific lesson plan, or an assignment description with respect to pedagogical innovations and inclusive practices. Thoughtfully examining a course’s materials helps to paint a clearer picture of the type of classroom the instructor fosters. An annotated document paired with peer feedback can also be an impactful addition to a teaching portfolio.

Preparing for a Peer Review of Course Materials

If you would like to have a colleague review your documents:

  1. First pick which course material you would like them to review: Identify a document that showcases your teaching style, innovative teaching practices, or a recently redesigned course. If you plan to use this peer review in your teaching portfolio, you may find it useful to consider the audience of your portfolio: what aspects of your teaching will be most valuable to your review committee?
  2. Next, reach out to a colleague to review your chosen document. Meet with them to share your goals for this peer assessment and schedule your post-assessment debrief meeting. This pre-assessment meeting is critical as it provides a chance for you to communicate what you hope to learn or gain from this process and communicates a timeline for the process. If you haven’t already, also use this meeting to provide them with this guide to support their review.
  3. During your post-assessment debrief meeting, your reviewer will walk you through the annotations they made on your documents and together you will brainstorm possible improvements you might make to your materials. This meeting is your chance to ensure that your reviewer is making formal suggestions that are not only founded in best teaching practices but that also align with your personal teaching values.

Reviewing Course Materials

Your colleague has asked you to examine their course material(s) (their syllabus, lesson plan, or assignment description) and you’ve met with them to learn about and discuss their goals for this review process. Throughout the review process, keep in mind their goals, which they shared during the pre-assessment meeting. When reviewing their document(s), we recommend that you annotate directly within a program like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or Google Docs to illustrate your points, ensuring that your annotations are specific and clear.

  1. As a starting point, go through the list of yes/no questions below to determine whether the documents have each of the described components. These questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather point out some of the key areas of each material that you might find productive to examine. As you approach these lists, think about what kind of impact the presence or absence of each item might have on the instructor’s classroom (avoid attempting to guess why particular components were or were not included). Please note that answering “no” to a particular question does not necessarily mean that a course is poorly designed; each course is different, and each instructor’s teaching style is unique. Feel free to copy and paste the relevant list into a word document and annotate it as well.
  2. Once you have identified areas of the documents on which you plan to focus your feedback (this might include areas that are present and areas that are missing), annotate the course documents to indicate the significance of each identified area. Your annotations should identify aspects of the materials that are supporting student learning (and how) and aspects that could be improved to better support student learning (and how). A few options for annotation tools within commonly used word processors are listed below the guiding questions.
  3. Complete the review on time for your post-assessment debrief meeting. We recommend that you do not share the annotations with anyone besides the instructor who requested the review and that you share them during the debrief for the first time. Sharing your annotations while you debrief will ensure that your comments are not misinterpreted and will give the author of these materials a chance to ask questions.
  4. [Optional] Consider writing a formal letter or report to capture your overall feedback and the debrief conversation. This letter can potentially be useful when building a Teaching Portfolio. Refer to the section on Delivering Feedback to Your Partner in our Peer Assessment of Teaching Overview as needed for a suggested outline of that letter.

Debriefing the Process

It is crucial to schedule and attend a debrief meeting after providing peer feedback on course materials. Going into the meeting, the reviewer should be prepared with a general outline of how to share their feedback as well as any clarifying questions they want to ask about the content and structure of the documents.

As mentioned above, this meeting also gives the instructor who authored these materials a chance to ask questions and make sure the feedback is aligned with their goals, and it gives the reviewer a chance to clarify what they wrote. This meeting is also an excellent place to brainstorm what steps the author might take next to further improve their course materials as part of the iterative feedback process.

Finally, if the reviewer wrote a formal letter, the letter can be updated based on the debrief conversation and shared with the author of the materials following the debrief.

Guiding Questions for Syllabus and Course Design Reflection

The following questions can serve as a guide as you review your colleague’s syllabus. You do not have to answer all these questions. Focus on the ones that are most relevant, interesting, and pedagogically helpful.

Learning Outcomes

  • Are the learning outcomes specific and measurable?
  • Are the learning outcomes written from the students’ perspective?
  • Are the learning outcomes skills, knowledge, attitudes, and/or interpersonal skills that your students can use after your course?
  • Do the learning outcomes reflect common competencies for professionals or scholars in your field?
  • Do the learning outcomes reflect the departmental learning outcomes?
  • If teaching an AU Core course, do the learning outcomes relate to AU Core learning outcomes?
  • Do the learning outcomes speak to diversity, equity, inclusion, or justice (DEIJ) topics?

Assessments

  • Do the assessments align with the learning outcomes?
  • Do the assessments reflect possible projects or work of those in the field?
  • Are the assessments relevant to students’ future academic work, professional work, or personal lives?
  • Do the assessments reflect possible projects or work students will be doing in the future?
  • Are any of the assessments scaffolded?
  • Do any of the assessments involve work outside of class in the community? Will the students’ work impact the community involved?
  • Are there opportunities for the students to choose the delivery method or format of their work (e.g., paper, podcast, presentation, video, website, etc.)?
  • Are there opportunities for students to choose topics they will be assessed on (e.g., choice of final paper topic)?

Course Content

  • Does the course content support the students’ achievement of the course’s learning outcomes?
  • Do the readings or other course materials reflect a diversity of authors, topics, and/or viewpoints?
  • Are the assigned readings and resources presented in a variety of formats, such as journal articles, videos, screencasts, podcasts, online periodicals, etc.?
  • Is the content accessible (e.g., does the textbook have an audiobook, are all PDFs accessible by screen readers, etc.)?
  • Are there any openly licensed free to access materials in the course, such as Open Educational Resources?

Course Policies

  • Are there policies they have crafted that are innovative, equitable, or inclusive?
  • Do the policies intend to foster a specific type of classroom?
  • Do the course’s policies support the students in the classroom and outside of it?
  • Do the students have multiple ways to participate and show their engagement in the course?
  • Are the policies clear, and do they communicate aspects of the ‘hidden curriculum’?

Overall Syllabus

  • Is a particular pedagogical approach employed to guide the syllabus creation process (e.g., constructivism, connectivism, etc.)?
  • Is a teaching philosophy reflected in the syllabus?
  • Does the syllabus language and tone convey a particular pedagogical style?
  • Does the syllabus have a diversity, mental health, or empathy statement?

Guiding Questions for Lesson Plans

The following questions can serve as a guide as you review your colleague’s plan for a specific class session. You do not have to answer all these questions. Focus on the ones that are most relevant, interesting, and pedagogically helpful.

Learning Outcomes

  • Are there learning outcomes listed for the lesson? If so, do they relate to the course’s learning outcomes?
  • Do the learning outcomes for the class session reflect skills, knowledge, attitudes, and/or interpersonal skills that the students can use after the course?
  • Do the learning outcomes for the lesson plan help students build towards the course learning outcomes?

Assessments

  • Does the instructor assess whether their students are making progress towards or are achieving the class’s learning outcomes?
  • Does the lesson plan employ a variety of assessment methods (e.g., diagnostic, formative, and/or summative assessments)?
  • Do this class session’s assessments relate to and/or build upon previous assessments?
  • Do the assessments reflect possible projects or work of those in the field?
  • Are the assessments relevant to students’ future academic work, professional work, or personal lives?

Student Engagement

  • What are the components that encourage a high level of interaction between the students?
  • Is there a high level of interaction between the instructor, content, and/or the students?
  • What kinds of in-class activities are in the lesson plan (e.g., group work, individual work, reflection, peer review, etc.)?
  • What are the instructional strategies that are used in the class (e.g., lecture, live polling, discussion, exit tickets, etc.)?
  • Are any technology tools used? Do they enhance the class?
  • Are there multiple ways for students to interact with the content, in accordance with Universal Design for Learning principles?
  • Does the instructor incorporate diverse perspectives into the class session through readings, activities, lectures, etc.?

Overall Lesson Plan

  • Is a teaching philosophy reflected in the lesson plan?
  • Does the lesson plan incorporate any diversity, inclusion, equity, or justice (DIEJ) concepts?

Guiding Questions for Assignment Descriptions

The following questions can serve as a guide as you review your colleague’s assignment description. You do not have to answer all these questions. Focus on the ones that are most relevant, interesting, and pedagogically helpful.

Learning Outcomes

  • Are there learning outcomes listed?
  • Is the purpose of the assignment clear to students?
  • Do the learning outcomes for the assignment reflect skills, knowledge, attitudes, and/or interpersonal skills that the students can use after the course?
  • Do the learning outcomes for the assignment help students build towards the course learning outcomes?

Task & Assessment Criteria

  • Is it clear what students need to do to complete the assignment and by when?
  • Are the tasks aligned with the purpose of the assignment?
  • Does the assignment provide choice in topic and/or format (e.g., written, presentation, graphic)?
  • Is it clear how students’ assignment submissions will be assessed?
  • Do students have opportunities to practice or receive feedback prior to submitting the assignment?

Overall Assignment Description

  • Are there components within the assignment that have changed over time? If so, why?
  • Is a teaching philosophy reflected in the assignment organization and description?
  • Does the assignment incorporate any diversity, inclusion, equity, or justice (DIEJ) concepts?

How to Annotate

Microsoft Word (recommended): Highlight the words or sentences that point towards each question you answered affirmatively. Then, add a comment either by right-clicking or through the Insert menu.

Apple Pages: Highlight the words or sentences that point towards each question you answered affirmatively. In the toolbar, click on the sticky note icon or, in the review toolbar, click on the plus sign.

Google Docs: Highlight the words or sentences that point towards each question you answered affirmatively. Click on the icon of a speech bubble with a plus symbol inside either in the toolbar or to the right of the highlighted selection.