A peer review assignment enables students to provide feedback on another student’s submission. Peer review assignments promote communication among learners, helping them master concepts and learn from one another. You can customize the settings to best fit your assignment. Students can only view others’ submissions after they have submitted their own assignment. Additionally, peer review assignments can be made anonymous, so people cannot see who is replying to their submissions.
How to Create a Peer Review Assignment
1. Create the assignment
- Give the assignment a proper title that matches the assignment title in the syllabus.
- In the details section, be clear and concise. Make sure to specify that students must submit the assignment as well as a peer evaluation.
2. Ensure that the assignment will post with the appropriate assignment group
- To do so, navigate to the “assignment group” drop-down tab and select the group.
- You may need to create a new group in the Assignments tab.
3. Select the appropriate submission type
- Choose between “No Submission,” “Online,” or “On Paper.” The “External Tool” submission type will not work with peer review assignments.
4. Enable peer reviews
- Select the check mark titled “Require Peer Reviews” in the Peer Review section.
- Choose how peer reviews are assigned. Pick between “Automatically Assign Peer Reviews” and “Manually Assign Peer Reviews.” For automatically assigned peer reviews: Enter the number of reviews the student should complete in the “Reviews per User.”
- Select whether you want peer reviews to be anonymous or not.
- Automatically Assign only works with online submissions.
- In “Assign Reviews,” select the date that Canvas will automatically assign students to their peers for evaluation. This is not the due date for the evaluations; it is when Canvas will automatically assign them.
- For manually assigned peer reviews:
- Select the option to manually assign and then save your assignment.
- In the assignment overview, select “Peer Reviews” on the right-hand side of the screen.
- Here, all students will be listed. Underneath their names select “Give ____ another submission to assess.” This will open the drop-down menu to choose who to assign them to.
Additional Instructions
To combine a peer review assignment with a group assignment:
- In the assignment creation page, navigate down to the “Group Assignment” section.
- Select “This is a Group Assignment.”
- To ensure that students are not assigned their own submissions to review, leave “Allow intra-group peer reviews” unchecked.
To add peer reviewing to discussion boards:
- Select Discussions on the course navigation bar.
- Create a new discussion.
- In the discussion details, select for this to be a graded assignment.
- In the peer review section, decide whether to assign manually or automatically.
To view a video that goes over the process select the link below:
Peer Review Assignments in Canvas Demo
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November 5th, 1:30-2:30 PM
Join this training to learn more about the Community of Inquiry Framework, and how to increase student engagement by building learning communities in online spaces.
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Facilitated by Leslie Fuller, PhD, Digital Learning Strategist.
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Designing Effective Assessments in an AI World
November 12th, 1:30-2:30 PM
Whether you are integrating AI into your students’ learning or trying to encourage students to leave AI out of class assessments, this training will help you learn more about designing effective assignments with Generative AI in mind.
This training session will be held over Zoom. After completing the registration form, you will receive an Outlook calendar invitation, including the Zoom link. All registrants will be sent a copy of the recorded training.
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Facilitated by ‘dara Abimbade, Digital Learning Strategist.
Contact Millie Tullis with any questions about this session.
Workshop Wednesday: Increasing Active Learning in Your Online Course
November 19th, 1:30-2:30 PM
This will be an active participation workshop where participants will bring either a learning activity they currently use or an idea for an activity they would like to explore for an upcoming course. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to define active learning, apply methods to increase active learning in their courses, and each will have a newly improved learning activity to use in their course design.
This training session will be held over Zoom. After completing the registration form, you will receive an Outlook calendar invitation, including the Zoom link. All registrants will be sent a copy of the recorded training.
Click here to register and receive the Zoom link!
Facilitated by James Butler, Digital Learning Strategist. Contact Millie Tullis with any questions about this session.
Clemson Online Fall 2025 Events Calendar
Review our Fall 2025 Events Calendar to see what Online Instruction Development opportunities await!
We have a robust lineup of topics and live training formats to support your use of Canvas and other e-learning tools. Topics cover demonstrations of using Kaltura, engaging your students, and workshops to get your Canvas site ready to teach!
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