Peer Feedback in Linked Courses: Perceptions of Benefits and Problems

Abstract

Peer feedback is a critical process in both academic and workplace projects. Understanding the ways in which students perceive peer feedback benefits technical communication pedagogy and also helps us better consider ways teams address complex client problems. In this classroom study, we ask, “What benefits and problems in using peer feedback do student teams perceive?” Our collected data focus on perceptions of peer feedback from individual students on teams in upper-level capstone courses in a computer science/technical communication sequence where teams designed software projects for workplace clients. Our grounded analysis shows that student perceptions of peer feedback generally fall into one of three broad categories—people, process, or text. Across both face-to-face and hybrid sections of the two-term course sequence, the majority of responses fall in the people category for both benefits and problems. Our results remind us to reinforce a series of strategies to make peer feedback more usable and productive.