ComPAIR Instructor Guide

ComPAIR Logo

ComPAIR is UBC’s homegrown peer review tool that adds comparing to the peer review process. In ComPAIR, students see pairs of their peers’ assignments presented side-by-side for criteria-guided comparison and feedback.

Students learn by comparing 1 and identifying strengths or weaknesses that may not be as evident in an isolated assignment. The process encourages productive peer feedback and critical thinking 2.

Access Immediate

Since it is an open-source tool, you can also install and manage ComPAIR yourself.

Cost Yes Free.
Bandwidth Yes Low demand on internet connections.
Canvas Integration Yes Works in coordination with Canvas.
Privacy Yes ComPAIR is developed and maintained at UBC.
Similar UBC-Supported Tools Y Other centrally supported student peer assessment tools also allow students to review one another’s work, each with somewhat different functionality and focus.

What can I use it for?

You can use ComPAIR to facilitate student peer assessment (peer review) assignments:

  • Managing collection of individual or group work, and automating the anonymized distribution of this work to peers
  • Seeing how students compare—and offer feedback on—pairs of their peers’ work
  • Giving feedback to each student or to the class

This tool guide was last reviewed in October 2024 with version 1.3.1 of ComPAIR.

How are others at UBC using ComPAIR?

Tiffany Potter uses ComPAIR to promote critical thinking skills in English

Nearly half of my students listed ComPAIR as the most useful classroom assignment on the year-end course evaluation: they enjoyed the comparison aspect, and they could readily understand how the tool and the assignment were helping them to engage course content and the critical processes behind their assignments and assessment. Read More »


James Charbonneau uses ComPAIR to explore grey areas in Physics

Students can read six assignments and get exposure to many viewpoints, while still exercising their peer evaluation skills. The direct comparisons themselves also allow students to more acutely see what separates good work from better work. It’s an invaluable tool for getting students to explore the grey areas in science. Read More »


What do I need to use ComPAIR?

A supported web browser

ComPAIR runs in your web browser and supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari.

Tips

  • You and your students can access ComPAIR on a mobile device from a web browser; there is no separate app to download. However, we recommend students use a larger screen when comparing to better view the side-by-side answer pairs.

How can I plan my course design and delivery to use ComPAIR?

It is best to outline your assessment approach from a pedagogical perspective before you get started. This preparation includes determining how you will use ComPAIR and how assessments will relate to grades.

Click any accordion bar below to explore considerations for using ComPAIR.

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Plan your student peer assessments

As with any learning activity, how these assignments are introduced, designed, and integrated in the course impacts the student experience with ComPAIR. Here are some recommendations to consider.

  • Clearly explain the learning objective(s): Students who understand the underlying skills they are practicing in ComPAIR feel they learn more from the assignments. It is important to explain the end goal of using ComPAIR—how comparing will help learning—rather than merely explaining the process. As a starting point, download the modifiable template for introducing ComPAIR to students created by UBC instructors.
  • Build on ComPAIR assignments: ComPAIR assignments are more beneficial to students when presented as part of a larger process. It is better to use ComPAIR for peer review in the context of a bigger course goal (e.g., prep for writing a later term paper or evaluation of an early project draft), rather than for standalone assignments.
  • Provide a low-stakes training round: Students feel more confident when they can practice comparing answers in a low-stakes training round prior to graded ComPAIR assignments. These practice rounds are especially useful in conjunction with a review of how to conduct comparisons.
  • Use multiple, detailed criteria for comparisons: When given more guidance, students say they learn more from comparing, especially when assignments are complex. Explaining precisely what to look for during comparisons—with multiple descriptive criteria in the application and/or detailed external rubrics—may result in stronger learning outcomes and richer feedback.
  • Require 3+ comparisons per assignment: Students uncertain about giving peer feedback report stronger confidence in this skill after practicing with more answer pairs. A minimum of three comparisons per student (i.e., each student reviews six peer works) is suggested to allow students to practice.
  • Assess the quality of peer feedback: Adding weight to the peer feedback that students write helps instructors increase the quality of feedback given. Assigning marks creates additional accountability for students and increases their commitment to the feedback process.

Develop your student peer assessment criteria

In ComPAIR, one or more custom criteria can be used to guide students' comparison of the answer pairs. Each criterion must pose a question that can be answered by choosing between the answers (e.g., Which is better?).

To develop criteria, start with the course learning outcomes and think about how seeing other work will help students get there—what can students learn from each other? Keep in mind how experienced students in the course will be and use criteria at a complexity the majority will be able to understand. UBC instructors generally use between 1-6 total criteria and advise using an odd number to discourage students from selecting a “tie” between answers.

Additionally, consider if the goal is more summative (critically looking at final work) or formative (constructively looking at drafted work). Harder, more complex, and longer criteria may be better for summative uses. Easier, more straightforward, and shorter criteria may be better for formative uses.

Decide on the timing of your assignment phases

You will need to decide how many ComPAIR assignments you will give in the course and the timing for each phase of the assignment: answering, comparing, and (optionally) self-evaluating. By default, comparing begins after answering ends, though these may be designed to overlap. However, keeping the phases separate allows students to complete their evaluations smoothly, without the delays that can happen when answering and comparing overlap and there are not enough answers available for students to compare.

ComPAIR assignments can be given during and after group projects as well. When you use the group assignment feature, only one answer will be required from each group (any member can submit), but each group member must complete the required comparisons and self-evaluation (if enabled) individually.

Choose how outcomes will influence grades

If ComPAIR assignments will influence grades, communicate to students from the beginning exactly how the assessment marks will be counted.

Often, instructors grade with a combination of two aspects:

  • Students' participation in the process (i.e., answering, comparing, and/or self-evaluating) - When creating your ComPAIR assignment, you will be able to assign weight for completing each phase.
  • The quality of the work students do through ComPAIR - This quality can apply to any of the following: the answers students initially submit, how peer feedback informs a revised or later version of the submitted work, or the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of their peer feedback (which has the added benefit of increasing students’ sense of accountability in providing quality constructive criticism).

A note on ComPAIR's rankings

ComPAIR’s focus is to help students effectively review peer work and write insightful feedback using comparison. However, some instructors have considered using ComPAIR’s optional scoring/ranking of answers for grading as well, primarily by chunking the answers into top, middle, and bottom groups and then assigning a grade to each group.

Conduct your own validation if you intend to factor ComPAIR’s outcomes into the marks you assign. Internal research indicates that ComPAIR’s scoring may not reliably map to traditional expert grading, as it relies on the skills and training of novices (students) to provide accurate, well-informed rankings of their peers’ answers.

How do I use ComPAIR?

To use ComPAIR, first set up a ComPAIR course and create an assignment in the application. Students will then be able to answer, compare peer answers, and comment on what they review.

Click any accordion bar below for instructions and tips for using ComPAIR.

Set up a ComPAIR course

The recommended way to get started with ComPAIR is to set up a ComPAIR course through Canvas. Students will be added when they click the ComPAIR link in your Canvas course. The setup instructions differ depending on whether you want to sync the ComPAIR participation grades with the Canvas Gradebook.

  1. Log in to your Canvas course and click Assignments in the Course Navigation.
  2. Click +Assignment in the upper right side of the screen.
  3. Enter the assignment name as "ComPAIR Link" to avoid confusing this with other assignments.
  4. Scroll down to "Submission Type" and select External Tool from the drop-down.
  5. To ensure the assignment will sync properly to Canvas, click Find instead of entering the URL directly.
  6. From the list, pick ComPAIR and click Select.
  7. Check the Load This Tool In A New Tab box.
  8. Click Save.
    • Please do not publish this assignment, if you want to sync grades between ComPAIR and Canvas. Instead, set up syncing for individual assignments using instructions in the "Set up grade syncing with Canvas for a ComPAIR assignment" accordion section below.
  9. You will be redirected to the assignment page you just saved. Click Load ComPAIR Link in a new window to create your ComPAIR course.
  10. Follow the steps on screen to create or link your course in ComPAIR.
    • If it is your first time using ComPAIR or you would like to create a new ComPAIR course, fill out the course details (name, year, semester) and course dates. Then click Save.
    • If you have used ComPAIR before and would like to use an existing ComPAIR course, click either Use This or Duplicate This next to the relevant course.
  11. Continue with the steps in this guide to set up your ComPAIR assignment and sync each assignment's grades with Canvas.
  1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
  2. Click Navigation.
  3. Find the ComPAIR menu item, click the three vertical dots (options icon), and choose Enable.
  4. The ComPAIR menu item will now be available in the Course Navigation for you and your students. Click ComPAIR in the Course Navigation.
  5. Follow the steps on screen to create or link your course in ComPAIR.
    • If it is your first time using ComPAIR or you would like to create a new ComPAIR course, fill out the course details (name, year, semester) and course dates. Then click Save.
    • If you have used ComPAIR before and would like to use an existing ComPAIR course, click either Use This or Duplicate This next to the relevant course.
  6. Tell your students that they need to follow the ComPAIR link from your Canvas course to enrol in your ComPAIR course. Students cannot enrol in your ComPAIR course by going to the ComPAIR application directly.
  7. Continue with the steps in this guide to set up your ComPAIR assignment.

Tips

  • If you use grade syncing, you will need to set up individual ComPAIR assignments in Canvas that students will click to sync their grades. Choosing not to use grade syncing means students will follow the ComPAIR link in your Canvas course only once: to initially enrol in your ComPAIR course.
  • Choosing not to use grade syncing does not affect your ability to manually enter grades in the Canvas Gradebook for ComPAIR assignments. It only prevents the weighted participation grades from automatically being sent to Canvas.
  • If you do not want to use Canvas to set up ComPAIR, you may log in directly to ComPAIR using your UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login). From there, you can add a course and add students to it. Contact us in the LT Hub for help with setting this up.

Understand the ComPAIR workflow

Using ComPAIR for peer review is a multi-stage process.

  1. You create an assignment: You will configure five options for each assignment: the assignment details, timing of phases, comparison criteria, number of comparisons, and participation grade weights.
  2. Students answer the assignment: Students answer using a rich text editor, a file attachment, or both. For a group assignment, only one student from each group needs to answer.
  3. Students compare and comment on pairs of peer answers: Students select a preferred answer from the pair for each criterion you set (e.g., "Which is better?), then write feedback to the author of each answer, following a set of customizable instructions. This phase is done individually, even in group assignments.
  4. Students complete a self-evaluation (optional): If you enable self-evaluation, students reflect and comment on their own answer at the end of the process, following a set of customizable instructions. This phase is done individually, even in a group assignments.
  5. Everyone views results: Once the phases of a peer review assignment are complete, students access the peer feedback given to their (or their group’s) answer, as well as all answers submitted by peers. You and your teaching team can read and comment privately or publicly on student answers, access a participation table to view activity and participation grades, mark "top" answers, and view each student’s comparison choices, peer feedback, and self-evaluation.

To find out more about each peer-review step, visit the ComPAIR support site's workflow page.

Create an assignment in your ComPAIR course

  1. Log in to ComPAIR using your UBC CWL and click your course name. If you do not have a course, you can follow the previous steps to set one up.
  2. Click +Add Assignment and fill in information about the assignment:
    • Under "Assignment Details", set the short name of the assignment, enable/disable self-evaluation and group functionality, and add assignment instructions in "Additional Assignment Information". You also have the option to upload a related attachment.
    • Under "Schedule", set the timelines for when students can answer, compare answers, and (optionally) evaluate their own answer. By default, the start date for comparing is after answering ends and there is no end date for comparing or completing self-evaluations. To add a start and/or end date for these phases, check the Manually set when students compare answers box and/or the Manually set when students self-evaluate box.
    • Under "Prompts", set the criteria that students will use to compare the answer pairs. Click +Add New to use more than one criterion. Each criterion should pose a question answered by choosing between the answers. Instructions for peer feedback and self-evaluation can also be added and customized.
    • Under "Comparison Settings", set the number of comparisons required from each student and how the pairs will be selected by the application—at random or adaptively based on how students have ranked answers so far. You can also add a practice answer pair for students to start with, enable replies to let students leave optional additional feedback, and allow instructors and TAs to compare.
    • Under "Participation Grade", set the weight given for completing each part of the assignment. These weights will be used to calculate a total participation grade.
  3. Click Save.

Tips

  • The number of comparisons  determines the amount of feedback students will give and receive. For example, with the default of three comparisons required for an assignment, students will be asked to review six peer answers and will receive roughly six peer feedback comments on their answer.
  • When assignments are set to select answer pairs adaptively, ComPAIR tracks a score for each answer that is used to match similarly scored answers in the pairs. You can read more about how ComPAIR's scoring works on the ComPAIR support site.
  • One advantage of pairing answers adaptively is creating more challenging comparisons. Since answers are selected for the comparison pairs based on the similarity of their scores, the pairs theoretically become closer in quality over time. However, this effect is more pronounced for students who complete comparisons later; students in the beginning will see random pairings.
  • The date(s) and time(s) you set for ComPAIR assignments are based on your device's current time zone. If you are outside of UBC's Pacific Time Zone, you will want to enter a converted time (e.g., from Toronto, to set an assignment to close at 7 p.m. in Vancouver, enter 10 p.m.).

Set up grade syncing with Canvas for a ComPAIR assignment

Once you have created a ComPAIR course and assignment, you can set up grade syncing with Canvas.

To sync properly, you will need to set up individual links in Canvas to each ComPAIR assignment. Students must click the link of each Canvas assignment to establish a connection between their Canvas Gradebook entries and their work in ComPAIR.

If you want to manually enter grades instead of syncing participation grades from ComPAIR to Canvas, these steps are not required.

  1. To create an assignment link in Canvas, first copy the necessary information from ComPAIR:
    • Log in to ComPAIR using your UBC CWL and click your course title.
    • Scroll to the ComPAIR assignment you want to sync grades from and click Edit underneath the assignment title.
    • Click Copy? at the top right of the edit page. This action will copy the information you need to enter in Canvas.
  2. Log in to your Canvas course and click Assignments in the Course Navigation.
  3. Click +Assignment in the upper right side of the screen.
  4. Enter the assignment name as you want students to see it.
  5. Scroll down to "Submission Type" and select External Tool from the drop-down.
  6. To ensure the assignment will sync properly with Canvas, click Find instead of entering the URL directly.
  7. From the list, pick ComPAIR and click Select.
  8. At the end of the "External Tool URL" field, type a question mark (?), then paste the value you copied from ComPAIR.
    • The "External Tool URL" will look similar to this:
      compair.elearning.ubc.ca/api/lti/auth?assignment=*******
  9. Check the Load This Tool In A New Tab box. This setting allows grades to properly sync with Canvas.
  10. Click Save & Publish so students can access the assignment.
  11. Make sure to tell your students that they need to click each ComPAIR assignment link in Canvas for syncing to work; otherwise, they will not receive the grades they expect.

Tips

  • The grade passed from ComPAIR to Canvas with the setup for grade syncing is for the weighted participation grade only. Even if you have enabled ComPAIR to track scores by using adaptive pairing in the assignment setup, the synced grade does not take this into account.
  • If you will be including assignment links for grade syncing, it is best to remove all other links to ComPAIR (e.g., in the Course Navigation) from your Canvas course. You want to avoid students accidentally clicking a wrong link to ComPAIR that will not allow their grades to sync.

Where can I get more support with ComPAIR?

Technical support

If you have trouble with ComPAIR:


Pedagogical support

Learn more


  1. Bransford, J. D., & Schwartz, D. L. (1999). Chapter 3: Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications. Review of research in education, 24(1), 61-100.
  2. Potter, T., Englund, L., Charbonneau, J., MacLean, M. T., Newell, J., & Roll, I. (2017). ComPAIR: A new online tool using adaptive comparative judgement to support learning with peer feedback. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 5(2), 89-113.

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