The benefits of ComPAIR are rooted in how it easily facilitates the peer review process while also adding the power of comparative judgement to how students engage with one another’s work.
How ComPAIR can help
Teaches through comparison
Students learn in ComPAIR through making comparisons, which help them spot the differences between similar answers and identify factors that contribute to a stronger or weaker quality of work. Instructors can guide the process with detailed rubrics that assist students in transitioning from novices to experts in reviewing work.
“Trains you to look for key components of an assignment.”
“Helps you judge what a good answer is by comparing two so you can find what qualities makes one better.”
“It really let you see which projects were good and which needed a little beefing [up] or emphasis on other areas.”
— Students in ComPAIR survey
Encourages meaningful feedback
Seeing paired work in ComPAIR creates reference points for students, which helps them extend feedback beyond recognizing grammatical or arithmetic errors to actionable feedback that they can use to improve high-level thinking in their work. The anonymous nature of the feedback exchange also empowers students to share constructive criticism.
“The anonymity of ComPAIR gives students the confidence to offer genuine feedback to their peers.”
— Instructor Tiffany Potter
“I liked how it gave me the opportunity to receive anonymous feedback, outside of class time, which peoplemight otherwise have been uncomfortablegiving in person.”
— Student in ComPAIR survey
Promotes self-reflection and improvement
Along with the instructor-generated rubrics, the pairs in ComPAIR encourage students to reflect on their own assignments. Instructors can also add a self-evaluation as the final phase to formalize this natural tendency of students to compare themselves to others.
“By making comparisons based on a set of criteria, it allows you to think objectively about your own work.”
“It trains you to be self-critical in a positive manner.”
“It helped me understand what I could do better.”
— Students in ComPAIR survey
Simplifies the peer review process
ComPAIR minimizes setup time and effort for instructors facilitating peer review assignments. It automatically distributes students’ work for peer review and efficiently delivers feedback and results to students and instructors. It’s also easy for students to use.
“I use it in pretty much every course I have the opportunity to because it’s so simple.”
— Instructor James Charbonneau
Lends itself to a positive student experience
With clear guidance and integration into courses, ComPAIR can offer students assignments they genuinely enjoy. Since 2016, half or more students in one first-year UBC English course have—unprompted—named ComPAIR among the most valuable learning experiences in their end-of-term surveys.
