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Comment and peer review in Mahara

Feedback and peer review can be very valuable in teaching students how to constructively appraise and assess each others competencies, skills, project approach and conduct (amongst other criteria) as part of authentic, and work-based, learning. This can be achieved in Mahara through the use of comments and the peer assessment block. This guide explains how to set these up.

Comments

Comments appear at the bottom of pages. It is also possible to integrate comments into the page by adding the Comments block.

They can also be enabled by the portfolio owner for pages and for individual artefacts including files, journal entries and notes. See the Mahara manual on Commenting for information on how to do this for each type of artefact.

Find the comment options for:

For templates, enable comments on the artefacts and pages in advance, so that when the template is copied, the option is already enabled.

Page comments will appear when the page is displayed (not in edit mode) at the bottom of the page or in the Comment block, and artefact comments as a link under the artefact they were added to. Comments are not anonymous and will have the profile image and preferred name of the person who added the comment.

Add the Comment block to a page

  1. Turn on editing on a page using the pencil  edit icon at the top right.
  2. Click and drag the drag to add a block icon from the top right-hand side of the page to the appropriate location on the page. Existing blocks will move to make space.
  3. Edit the block title - this cannot be done afterwards for the comment block.
  4. A window will fly in from the right. Click on More, and select the Comment block in the list.
  5. The block will be added to the page immediately.

Peer assessment block

The peer assessment block can be added to pages by the owner of the page (e.g. when creating a template). In order for the peer assessor to access and add an assessment, as text, images, links etc., they need to be added via the Manage access section as a peer. Assessments are not anonymous and will have the profile image and preferred name of the person who added the assessment.

Add the peer assessment block to a page

  1. Turn on editing on a page using the pencil  edit icon at the top right.
  2. Click and drag the drag to add a block icon from the top right-hand side of the page to the appropriate location on the page. Existing blocks will move to make space.
  3. A window will fly in from the right. Click on More, and select the Peer Assessment block in the list.
  4. Edit the block title if required.
  5. Add instructions on how to add the assessment (Rules of conduct, format, sections).
  6. Click Save

Add sharing permissions for Peers

  1. Follow the instructions for sharing a page or collection to share with others.
  2. Select Search for > User and find the person to add as a peer.
  3. Use the drop-down next to the name to change the role from No special role to Peer.
  4. Click Save.

Add a peer assessment

  1. Open the page to add the assessment to. Only block headings and the peer assessment block will be visible.
  2. Click on + Add peer assessment
  3. Follow the instructions to add content.
  4. Click Save Draft to come back and finish the assessment later or click Publish to complete the process.

View a peer assessment

When the peer assessment has been published it will become visible on the page.

The information on this page relates to Mahara 20.04 and was last updated August 2020.

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