Uncertainty of Peer-assessment

After marking the group assignment, I was surprised by the low mark given by most of the students to their peers. This prompted me to reveal the scores on Facebook course group so that the students understand the complexity of being judged by others—assessment is a combination of subjective, objective, relative and emotive judgment.

As predicted, when students knew how others judged them, they began to argue on issues related to peer-assessment. I managed to moderate the situation to avoid aftermath conflict. One issue that is worth highlighting: when this course is offered without prerequisite, there is no such thing as "senior" or "junior", i.e. every student is treated as blank slate--John Locke's Blank Slate Theory. 

In fact, this learning process is very useful for the students to realise what would happen when they join the creative industry later in their life. They have to compete with all designers, regardless of their social, academic and economic background. Everybody is on the same arena to judge each other's work. To gain high score, you need to work hard to EARN it, not really because you are senior that you deserve higher mark, or vice versa.