(82e) Peer Evaluation In Chemical Engineering Design Through Wikis

Practicing engineers are put into situations where their work will be critically evaluated by others and they are also expected to critically evaluate the work of others.  To help practice these skills, we used peer evaluation through wikis as a method for the chemical engineering design teams to both evaluate other’s work and to be evaluated.  Students, in groups of four, were asked to design a process that will manufacture products ranging from acetone and CO₂ scrubbing solvents to ibuprofen and glucose.  After four weeks, a progress report was due.  This progress report was submitted to the instructor for grading, as well as posted on a wiki site.  The students were assigned two groups to assess and they were given the suggestion to look at both the technical and communication aspects of the report.  The groups were assigned to allow the students to read a variety of projects from different sections of the class and also for the strong groups to be paired with weaker groups, and vice versa.  The learning objectives of the exercise were to (1) enhance written communication skills due to (i) peer review of their work and (ii) requirement to express opinions in a written format, (2) develop critical thinking skills when evaluating other projects, and (3) obtain an in-depth understanding of their own projects from peer-review comments.  Surveys were also done to assess the students’ attitudes toward the wiki assignment.   At the conclusion of the project, the individual section instructors were all impressed with the evaluations done by the students.  The students were interested and engaging in their comments and often came up with ideas that were not thought of by the instructor.  This paper will present some of the positive and negative aspects of using wiki’s in engineering education and explore student reaction to this educational model.