Online Peer Review: What’s role got to do with it?
Abstract: This study explored the use of a tailored online writing program for first-year undergraduate students at an urban college of technology. The program facilitated group peer review focusing on feedback-on-feedback in meaningful and technologically elegant ways. Students in a composition class were divided into two groups. One group acted as first reviewers and the other group acted as second reviewers in a process of linear, two-person blind review. In contrast to a comparison group, these online peer reviewers improved their own writing proficiency with statistical significance. While there were no significant differences in writing gains between online reviewer groups, patterns seem to be emerging of role effects in terms of micro and macro-level areas of writing proficiency.