BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1659735
Embedding Peer Assessment in MCQs Has Improved Immediate Performance but Increased Task Duration Without Enhancing Transfer
Provisionally accepted
- 1UMR5505 Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Toulouse, France
- 2Institut Polytechnique des Sciences Avancees, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
- 3Universite Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse, France
- 4Universite Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier Institut Universitaire de Technologie Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
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Introduction: Multiple-choice questions are widely used in higher education and online training because of their scalability. This study examines whether incorporating peer assessment, such as evaluating written explanations accompanying students' answers, can increase students' cognitive engagement and improve learning outcomes in asynchronous settings. Methods: One hundred undergraduate science students were randomly assigned to three groups and completed a series of conceptual questions on an online platform. Group A responded to standard multiple-choice questions. Group B additionally evaluated fictional peer explanations using agreement ratings. Group C additionally provided written feedback. All participants completed four experimental questions followed by five transfer questions. Completion time and performance at each phase were recorded. Results: Students in both peer assessment groups demonstrated significant gains between initial and revised answers. A linear regression revealed a significant effect of the peer assessment type on immediate performance, with written feedback benefiting low-performing students more markedly. However, no group outperformed the control in the transfer questions. Task duration increased significantly with peer assessment, particularly for the group providing written comments. Discussion: Embedding peer assessment appears to enhance immediate MCQ performance, especially when students are required to articulate written feedback; however, it did not improve transfer performance and significantly increased task duration. The absence of measurable gains in conceptual learning raises questions about the cost–benefit ratio of such interventions in time-constrained educational settings. Further research is warranted to delineate the conditions under which such interventions yield long-term benefits.
Keywords: Peer assessment, Multiple-choice questions, asynchronous learning, peer instruction, Immediate Performance, Conceptual transfer
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Parmentier, Sigayret and Silvestre. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jean-François Parmentier, UMR5505 Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Toulouse, France
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