By judging the work of others, students gain insight into their own performance. The use of peer assessment encourages students to believe they are part of a community of scholarship. So far this account has been principled and high-minded. But we may avoid this drawback by using the neglected teaching resource of the students themselves. An important role for self and peer assessment is providing additional feedback from peers while allowing teachers to assess individual students less, but better.
Computer based assessment is another possibility for providing more feedback to students.
While giving more predictable feedback, it requires a greater initial investment from staff and is more limited than most students in the quality of its responses. At first sight there must be difficulties with the validity and reliability of assessment done by students. Ultimately, the value of student assessment will depend on the many variables affecting learning in a specific course. In general, accuracy is good and is improved where assessment is double-anonymous, assessments are going to be moderated by a tutor, there are clear criteria, and assessors have some experience or training in assessment. After receiving anonymous reviews of their work students had time to improve it, and final versions were mounted on the web spaces by a submission deadline.