Collaborative Peer Feedback for continuous product improvement in a higher education course

This contribution focus on the peer-feedback activities carried out in a blended university course inspired by the Trialogical Approach to Learning. The course lasted 10 weeks divided into 3 modules; 109 students participated to the activities (M: 27 - F: 82), working in 11 groups of about 10 members. During the course students build knowledge products and are asked to improve them through mutual feedback. In order to track the evolution of students’ critical skills, we analyzed a pre-post questionnaire for the self-assessment of critical skills (N=100) and the peer-feedback forms written by the groups (N=44). Results of the questionnaire show statistically significant differences with p<.01 in all the items investigated; results from the analysis of the peer–feedback forms show a significant improvement in the quality of the comments given from the first to the second feedback activity. The articulation of the course activities seems therefore to support a good development of students’ critical skills.