Promoting Saudi University Students’ Experience Through Peer Assessment Practice

Peer assessment (PA) has received growing attention recently due to its great impact on students’ autonomy and growth (Bryant & Carless, 2010; Patri, 2002). It requires students to be critical in evaluating their peers’ performance, engage in a discussion about their work, and eventually make improvements. This activity helps to create a collaborative learning environment. Despite being of such importance, peer assessment has still been overlooked by many university teachers, who remain hesitant to put it into practice. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate, through the perceptions of undergraduate applied linguistics students, the contribution and efficiency of using PA in enhancing the student’s learning experience and skills.  The researcher implemented PA practice in the classroom in which 16 university-level Saudi female students were asked to assess other students’ tasks and then to write a reflection about their own experience in the PA practice and how it influenced their performance in the course of digital linguistics. The data analysis revealed that students’ participation in the PA significantly promotes students’ classroom engagement and improves their critical thinking, writing, and analysis skills. The study concludes with suggestions for effectively applying peer evaluation practices in different university courses.