Understand Peer Reviews in Canvas

Quick Links: | Prerequisites | Instructions | Troubleshooting | Next Steps |

Introduction

Peer Reviews in Canvas let students leave feedback on other students’ assignment submissions or discussion replies. This is commonly used to build revision cycles, promote constructive critique, and increase student-to-student interaction. Peer reviews can be set up so student names are visible or so feedback is anonymous to students. This guide explains what Peer Reviews are and how to set them up in your course.

Prerequisites

• You have an assignment or discussion in your Canvas course where you want students to review each other’s work.
• You are enrolled in the course with an instructor role that can create or edit assignments/discussions.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Set up peer reviews in Canvas

To set up peer reviews in Canvas, do the following:

1. Decide whether you want peer reviews on an assignment submission or a discussion reply.
2. If you are using an assignment, follow Instructure’s instructions in Create a peer review assignment in Canvas: https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/660696-how-do-i-create-a-peer-review-assignment.
3. If you are using a discussion, follow Instructure’s instructions in Create a peer review discussion in Canvas: https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/660800-how-do-i-create-a-peer-review-discussion.
4. If you want anonymous peer reviews, enable the anonymous peer review option during setup (this hides reviewer names from students and also prevents reviewers from seeing who they are reviewing).https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/662764-what-are-peer-reviews
5. Plan your settings before assigning peer reviews, because once peer reviews are assigned, the anonymous vs. named setting can’t be changed unless you delete and re-assign the peer reviews. https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/662764-what-are-peer-reviews

Now the assignment or discussion is configured so students can provide feedback on each other’s work. Students will only be able to access peer reviews after they submit their own assignment or reply to the discussion.

Troubleshooting

• Students say they can’t see the peer review: Students can only view peer reviews after they have submitted their own work for the assignment or replied to the discussion.
• You need to switch from named to anonymous (or the reverse): Once peer reviews are assigned, that visibility setting can’t be changed unless peer reviews are deleted and re-assigned.
• Anonymous peer reviews don’t support DocViewer annotations: Canvas DocViewer does not support anonymous comments for annotated feedback. Consider using non-anonymous peer reviews or having students leave non-DocViewer comments instead.

Next Steps (Optional)