Peer Review as an Activating Learning Method Within University Education

This paper reports about a study of a peer reviewing process in university education in the subject of e-business. Peer review is a current method to control the quality of scientific publications. It is the core element of self-monitoring in scientific communities. Research methods are part of higher education, so it is reasonable to teach the students how to survey und review the works of their colleagues. This study is based on a survey of different groups of students of two universities, who reviewed papers in the subject e-business. The method of peer-review is a form of reflective learning based on the theory of experiential learning (Kolb 1984). Based on the experience based learning model the different learning styles of the students were enquired and compared with their attitudes in different learning methods in general and the peer review in particular. The reviewing process requires that the reviewer deals carefully with the content of the reviewed paper. The students described how the reviewing process helped them to understand the learning subject. It also comes with the peer review to promote mutual support among students. The peer review as a learning method was used in three different course scenarios at two different locations in higher education; one scenario was realized in an Austrian university, two scenarios were located in a German university of applied sciences. The findings of the study show that peer review as a learning method needs clear instructions and guidelines for the learners. Clearly defined tasks and work instructions for each step is a prerequisite for the success of the peer review as a learning process. The feedback of the students about the peer review was very positive, for all students it was quite new, most of them never saw works of their colleagues. Moreover they liked the different learning methods.