Online peer assessment improves learners’ creativity:not only learners’ roles as an assessor or assessee, but also their behavioral sequence matter

Creativity is considered to be a vital 21st-century skill, and is therefore a critical component of any education program. There is growing evidence to suggest that peers’ ideas (e.g., feedback, creative works) can stimulate learners’ creativity in contexts of interaction. Thus, to compensate for the limitations of immediate feedback in online learning spaces, the current study used an online platform to facilitate undergraduate students in peer assessments. Sixty-nine undergraduate students took part in the study, and two independent raters evaluated the creativity exhibited in the creation of an artifact at the start and end of the process in terms of fluency, originality, and elaboration. The results show that student creativity exhibited through the artifacts improved significantly through peer assessment. Furthermore, as assessors, when the students provided their own positive assessments to their fellow students, they tended to also apply that self-feedback to their own artifacts, and the more they applied self-feedback, the more improvement they showed; meanwhile, as assessees, when students received negative feedback, they tended to ignore their peers’ feedback, and the more they ignore peer feedback, the less improvement they gained. These findings highlight the importance of both the roles of assessor and assessee in peer assessment and provide valuable educational implications in how to improve creativity in online learning. Specifically, to improve creativity, when learners act as assessors, they should be encouraged to find the positive aspects in their peers’ artifacts and learn from their peers; in contrast, when they act as assessees, they should be encouraged to accept their peers’ negative feedback and apply the useful suggestions rather than ignore it entirely.