How to Setup Anonymous Peer Reviews (Brightspace Workaround)

Brightspace does not have a native built-in anonymous peer review feature or group member evaluation feature. However, the following solution provides functions similar to an anonymous peer review tool using the Groups and Discussions tools that allows each student the ability to anonymously review one other student’s submission.

For tools to help with group member assessments, visit the CTL Teaching & Learning Resources pages.

Table of Contents

Overview of the Workflow

  1. Place students in randomized groups of two using the Groups tool.
  2. Create a discussion forum with a single topic where students will post their paper submissions anonymously.
  3. Hide the Groups tool link from students so they cannot see who they’re paired up with.
  4. When students enter the forum, they will see only their group topic. The students post their submission in the forum. It will be important for students to remember to manually check the anonymous option while posting.
  5. Once all posting is complete, a student will see only the submission of the one other student in their group. This is the paper they will peer review.
  6. GA/TAs can view each thread in the topic and place a grade in the Gradebook.

Steps for set up

Remove the Groups tool link from the navbar

  1. Hover your mouse anywhere over the navbar until the Navbar Options button (3 dots) appears on the bar to the right of the menu items.
  2. Click the 3-dots and then select Edit This Navbar option.
  3. (If this is the first time you are editing the navbar, you will see Customize This Navbar instead. Click that and then click yes on the confirmation pop-up.)
  4. Find and click the Course Tools button (be careful not to click the X on the right of the button) and a pop-up will appear.

2 points to edit this navbar option4 points to course tools menu button

  1. Click the X beside Groups and click Save.
    5 points to save
  2. Click Save and Close.
    6 points to save and close button

Note: Instructors and GA/TAs can still access the Groups link via Course Tools > Course Admin > Groups.

course tools with drop down menu showing course admin Groups link found under the Learner Management title

Create the paired groups

  1. In your course site click Course Tools, select Course Admin and click Groups from the drop-down menu.
  2. Click New Category. A category is a way to organize your groups and is required to create groups.
    arrow 2 points to new category button
  3. Fill in the name for the category, for example, “Peer Reviewed Assignment 1”. You can optionally include a description.
    category name field is filled in
  4. Set the Enrolment Type to “Groups of #” and the Number of Users to “2”.
  5. Check the Auto Enrol New Users checkbox, so late registrants will automatically be added to a group.
    screenshot for steps 4 and 5

Create the discussion forum and topic

  1. While still in the New Category screen, scroll down to Additional Options and check the Set up discussion areas checkbox.
  2. Select a forum to use or create a new one.
  3. Select Create a new topic.
  4. Leave everything else as default and click Save.
    6 points to setup discussion areas checkbox 7 points to forum drop-down menu 8 points to create new topic radio option 9 points to save button
  5. On the Create Restricted Topics screen, select the Create one topic with threads separated by group option.
  6. Enter a title for the topic, or leave the default suggested title. This is the topic where students will post their paper submissions and where they’ll find another student’s paper to review.
  7. Click the Create and Next button to complete the setup process. Then click Done.

10 points to create one topic separated by threads11 points to new topic title field12 points to create and net button

Enable anonymous posting

  1. In Discussions, click the down arrow next to the topic you just created and select Edit Topic.
    Edit Topic is selected in the drop-down menu beside the a discussion topic
  2. On the topic page, expand the Post & Completion box on the right and select Allow learners from hide their names from other learners.
    Allow learners to hide their name from other learners is selected under Post & Completion
  3. Click Save and Close.

The Peer Review Process

  1. To submit: Instruct student to go to the Discussion forum and Topic you set up in Step 10 above, select Start a New Thread, attach their paper to their post, (very important) select Post as Anonymous, and click Post.
  2. To review: Each student will post a reply to the other student’s thread in the topic. Since each group has only two students and the topic is group-separated, that means each student will only see one other paper in the topic that’s not theirs. This simplifies the task for the students as there’s only one topic to review and make a reply to instead of having to choose one from many threads posted anonymously.
    IMPORTANT: When they post a reply, they must remember to select Post as Anonymous.
  3. To grade, Instructors and/or GA/TAs will view each thread and assess the reviews made by the other student on the submission and then manually input scores accordingly in the Grades tool on Enter Grades page.
Print Article