(61b) Learning Technical Writing Skills through Peer Review: Use of Calibrated Peer ReviewTm in Unit Operation Lab

Calibrated Peer Review^TM (CPR), initially developed by UCLA in the 1990s, is an internet-based educational module that can be to improve student understandings through writing in a large class. CPR applies the process of scientific peer review to education. Students perform research (study), write about their ?findings?, submit it for blind review (and act as reviewers themselves), and finally use peer feedback to improve their understanding. All of this can be done without intervention from the instructor using CPR.

This paper reports on an experimental study on the utility of CPR in engineering education. In this instance, CPR was introduced into a writing-intensive Unit Operation laboratory course. Students worked in teams and perform a set of experiments, but were required to submit individually-crafted executive summaries using the CPR system. Assessment was based on instructor inspection of student work related to previous semesters and a survey administered to the students. Improvements of student writing skills as well as critical reading skills are analyzed.