Figure 1: An image of Emily's Google Doc. I highlighted certain pieces of her text and made comments on what she could do to improve. Specifically, I mention the use of captions for her digital artifacts.

TASK

As part of DAC 400, I’m required to complete WatCV assignments which, are meant to help students showcase course projects and articulate their professional skills. As part of WatCV assignment 2, it’s suggested that we peer review other student’s assignments in class prior to submission. I worked with my classmate, Emily, and we looked over each other’s assignment drafts. This situation was a little challenging for me as I had little experience marking WatCV assignments, and I had never given Emily feedback one-on-one before. However, I practiced my teamwork skills by closely working with Emily to provide suggestions to her work, and use her feedback to improve my WatCV 2 assignment. 

 

MY ACTIONS

Emily and I began to peer review each other’s assignments by sending each other our WatCV 2 drafts. Emily sent me a Google Doc of her draft and I reviewed it alongside the WatCV rubric going over each section of Emily’s draft. Following the rubric, I checked her ePortfolio design, reflection organization, STAR format, writing, digital artifact and proofreading. I awarded Emily marks when she successfully achieved the criteria outlined in the different rubric categories. For example, I gave her +5.0 marks for editing and proofreading since she removed all significant errors within her draft. Since this was an exercise in providing feedback, when Emily didn’t achieve a mark in a specific category, I commented on pieces of text in her Google Doc to suggest on how she could improve. For example, Emily didn’t add captions to her digital artifacts, so I suggested that she add them so that the reader can explicitly understand what’s going on in the image and why it’s relevant to the WatCV reflection (refer to Figure 1). After I finished marking Emily’s WatCV 2, I sent her my rubric and informed her that I made comments to her Google Doc (refer to Figure 2). Once Emily had finished reviewing my assignment draft, we had a conversation and discussed our thoughts on each other’s work. When discussing Emily’s reflection, I spoke about the pros and cons of her assignment, and I elaborated on the written feedback I had sent her. In terms of feedback for my assignment, Emily told me that my writing was a little unclear. Specifically, she said I had some run-on sentences and that some of the words I used were a bit ambiguous. I considered her comments and I quickly went over my assignment and found areas where I could make my sentences more concise and use simpler vocabulary. I asked Emily whether my revisions improved her understanding of my reflection, and she said that they did. ​

 

RESULTS

As a result of the peer review activity, I was able to both give feedback to someone to help improve their work, and I received feedback on how to improve my own work. I effectively practiced my teamwork skills as I had a collaborative discussion with my classmate, Emily, to create a stronger WatCV 2 assignment. I think my teamwork skills were successful because I believe my comments helped Emily improve her assignment, and by considering her feedback, my WatCV 2 mark was higher than my WatCV 1 mark. I also think by working together as a team, I got to know Emily better in the process. For future written assignments, like WatCV, I’ll be sure to practice my teamwork skills by providing and seeking out feedback from others to better the quality of work while developing stronger rapport with peers.

Communicating with others, getting input on decisions, and providing feedback to help the team achieve a common goal.

TEAMWORK