Arts and Science Online (ASO) has been piloting peerScholar from May 2021 - September 2022. Consequently, peerScholar is only available for Arts and Science Online course. If you are interested in using peerScholar for a course outside of ASO, please contact the ITServices Support Centre. A decision as to whether to continue with peerScholar will be made mid-summer, 2022. If you are an ASO course instructor and you are interested in the level of peerScholar support available for your course, please email asomm@queensu.ca.

Activity Management

Although peerScholar is supported by Arts and Science Online, teaching teams are encouraged to manage their own peerScholar activities whenever possible. This will expedite response time and improve the student learning experience in your course.

Teaching teams can access peerScholar the same way students do. PeerScholar is often linked up from the Timeline or directly from an activity page. In the student instructions pop-up the activity can be accessed from the button in the bottom-right or from the button on the last slide.

peerScholar due dates are automatically set up in your course based on the dates provided on the course timeline. If a due date is updated/modified in onQ it needs to be changed in peerScholar as it isn't automatically propagated. 

  1. From the peerScholar Activity Dashboard, click on the Edit icon in the center of the page
  2. On the Edit page, choose Set Dates at the top of the page.
  3. On the Set Dates page, make the desired adjustments to the dates and times for the phase(s).
  4. Choose Save & Close when finished

When changing dates in peerScholar, the following should be considered:

  • The date selector in peerScholar requires that the start and end dates to be re-selected even if only one date needs to be changed. Once the start date is picked on the calendar, pick the end date. If selected properly the purple Confirm button will appear at the bottom of the calendar.
  • Dates and times cannot overlap between phases. In some cases peerScholar might flag an overlapping date even if the two phases are a minute away from overlapping each other. For this reason it's recommended that the phases be configured such that there is a 5 minute grace period between the end of one phase and the beginning of another
  • If possible, date changes should be made before the create phase ends. If students are assessing work and the activity is reverted back to the create phase, work could be updated which would result in assessments no longer matching the work that was submitted. 
  • If the Create Phase has passed and late submitters need to be allowed to upload work 
    • The Submit Late option can be enabled on the Create Phase (recommended if numerous students are late)
    • Individual extensions can be granted on a student's behalf (see Grant Extensions section)

Extensions can be granted for any phase in peerScholar.

  1. From the peerScholar Activity Dashboard, choose Student Progress & Grading at the top of the page

  2. On the Student Progress & Grading page, navigate to the student that requires and extension.

    The Student Progress & Grading page is a great resource for assessing progress of the class in each individual phase and grading any students that might have been missed.

  3. Click on the associated cell (it might state Not Started or Complete) and choose Allow Late Access

  4. An hourglass indicates that the extension has been granted.

    It is currently not possible to set individual extension dates in peerScholar. When Allow Late Access has been selected for a particular student they would have the ability to submit at any point in time during the activity. If there is any concern that work won't be submitted or submitted long after the agreed upon extension, the following workarounds can be used:

    • Instead of granting an extension, students can be asked to send work to the teaching team and they can upload it on their behalf (see Upload Student Work)
    • Once the agreed upon time has passed, the teaching team can visit the Student Progress & Grading page again and revoke access. In step 3 listed above the Revoke Late Access option will become available for any student who has been given Late Access

It is currently only possible to upload work during the Create and Reflect Phases. If a student requires more time in the Assess Phase, an Extension will need to be granted (please see above)

  1. From the peerScholar Activity Dashboard, choose Student Progress & Grading at the top of the page

  2. On the Student Progress & Grading page, navigate to the student whose work needs to be uploaded.

  3. Click on the associated cell (it might state Not Started or Complete) and choose Edit

  4. In the submission window, choose Edit button in the upper-right corner

  5. Text can be pasted in the associated textbox. Documents can be uploaded by selecting +Add .

    Existing work can be replaced or added by selecting the minus button under Attachments. Document removals are immediate and irreversible (e.g. peerScholar will remove the document and save the changes regardless of the save button being clicked on). For this reason it's recommended that extra precaution be taken to ensure the correct student is being edited before these changes are made.

  6. Choose Save when finished

Successfully submitted work will either display as Overdue or Complete depending on if the Create/Revise phase is still open or not.

Step 4 needs to be followed in order for work to be properly updated in peerScholar. If this step is skipped, step 3 needs to be repeated, the document removed, and the work re-uploaded with step 4 being followed.

Grading

Grading should only commence after all phases of the activity have ended. If grading begins while the activity is still running, the teaching team will need to double back and grade work that was submitted later on.

When a peerScholar activity is first activated, the grading widget will indicate that Grading is not configured. This is a prompt for the instructor to verify the settings before the team begins grading.

  1. From the peerScholar Dashboard, select Edit Grading from the grading widget
  2. On the Grading Options page, verify how points are allocated from the the summary menu on the right. Teaching Team evaluations can be reviewed on the right. 
  3. Click Save when finished

Grading criteria and weighting is set up to match what is available in onQ. If there is an issue with how criteria/weighting is configured in your peerScholar activity, please send a message to asomm@queensu.ca

  • From the peerScholar Dashboard, select Grade Now from the grading widget

    peerScholar offers a high level of flexibility when grading, however, this can cause issues if the teaching is grading inconsistently. For this reason it's recommended that the team quickly meet to discuss before grading begins.

  • Grading criteria can be found to the right of the page. The student being assigned the grade is displayed at the top.

Grading a submission made by a Student (e.g. Feedback Received)

This is the default view in peerScholar. Content is laid out as follows:

  1. Work the student submitted can be viewed or downloaded from center column
  2. Feedback written by assigned reviewers (other students) can be viewed on the Feedback Received column (leftmost)
  3. If more than 1 peer has written feedback about the selected student's work, different student feedback can be viewed by selecting another student icon below the name of the student being graded at the top of the page
  4. Click Save when grades and feedback have been entered.
  5. Navigate to the next student by choosing the arrow to the right of the student's name at the top of the page.

Grading feedback written by a student

  1. Change the view to View Given Feedback (tiny link in the upper-left below the Back button)
  2. Work the student reviewed can be viewed in the center window. Their associated review can be found on the left
  3. If more than 1 student is being allocated in the activity, the next student can be viewed by selecting the student icon at the top-center of the screen
  4. Navigate to the next student by choosing the arrow to the right of the student's name at the top of the page.

Not sure which view you are in when you start grading? Please try the following:

  • Check the upper-left of the screen. If the student's name appears under "Feedback Received", you are in the view for grading a submission
  • Alternate between students by selecting the icon at the top of the screen. If the center and left-hand windows change, you are in the view for grading feedback written by a  student. If only the left-hand window changes you are in the view for grading a submission.

It is currently not possible to directly grade reviews tied to a submission (e.g. assign grades to different students). Any grade entered into the grading rubric (right of the screen) will be associated with the student at the top of the screen. 

When the time comes to make grades available to your students, please email asomm@queensu.ca .

The default peerScholar setting is to not assign students to specific graders. This allows TAs to view and grade all of the students in the course. This is the recommended method for grading, however, if TAs need to be restricted in some way, students should be assigned to graders in peerScholar

onQ marking groups are not automatically propagated to peerScholar. If the same marking groups should be used in your peerScholar activity, please email asomm@queensu.ca.

Randomly Assign Graders

  1. on the peerScholar dashboard, choose Edit Grading in the grading widget
  2. In the Grading Options window, choose Assign Grading
  3. In the Grading Assignment window, choose Randomize and Save Settings
  4. Select Save to close the window


Assign Individual Students

  1. on the peerScholar dashboard, choose Edit Grading in the grading widget
  2. In the Grading Options window, choose Assign Grading
  3. In the Grading Assignment window, choose View/Edit
  4. In the Select Accounts window, click Change at the top and select the TA to assign students to
  5. From the student list at the bottom choose the + or delete icons to add or remove students from that TA's grading list
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for any other TAs that need students assigned.

peerScholar allows for multiple TAs to grade the same student. To avoid a student from accidentally being graded twice, the allocations should be tracked externally (e.g. on a spreadsheet or within onQ). If you wish to assign grading based on pre-existing TA groups in onQ, please contact the ASO Multimedia team

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