Peer Assessment (Generic)

This is the Generic Use Case supported by the shown in::PeerPigeon System.



Use Cases
This usecase is composed of the following usecases:
 * is composed of::Run Assessment Plan (Peer Assessment (Generic))
 * is composed of::Log (Peer Assessment (Generic))
 * is composed of::Notify (Peer Assessment (Generic))
 * is composed of::Distribute resources to participants (Peer Assessment (Generic))
 * is composed of::Package Content (Peer Assessment (Generic))

Description
The complexity of the system is encapsulated in a Peer Review Plan, this ties together three elements:


 * A Peer Review Pattern (an ordered description of the cycles of peer review and the roles of the participants in each cycle).


 * A number of actual Participants (possible arranged into Groups) that populate the roles in the plan.


 * A Schedule of upcoming dates and times, that ties the pattern to a real timescale.

It is the tutor’s responsibility to construct, adjust and validate this plan. The tutor is also responsible for handling exceptions in the peer review process (for example, a student missing a deadline).

A proactive Peer Review System is at the heart of the process. This executes the plan according to the schedule, notifies the participants as to their tasks, allows them to submit artefacts, reviews and marks, and distributes them according to the pattern. The Peer Review System can also facilitate the tutor in authoring the plan (for example, by suggesting a schedule based on a start date and the pattern, and suggesting roles for participants based on the pattern). Students (Authors and Reviewers) receive notifications from the system, and use it to submit their artefacts and reviews. They can also consult the plan, so that they can see what is expected of them.

The Group use case is mainly used as part of the Author Assessment Plan use case, and describes the process of allocating people roles, and/or placing them into groups. However, not all grouping can be done a priori, for example in Wheater [12] authors are grouped according to the theme of their presentations, but this is not known until after their presentations have been submitted. For this reason the Group use case is also part of the Running an Assessment Plan use case.

It is also important to note that the Allocate Marks use case is an extension of the Submit Review use case. This is because we regard a mark as a type of review; the difference is that in Allocate Mark we assume that as well as being submitted (for processing according to the pattern) it is also formally recorded in some way (such as being entered into a University marks system).