PeerWise Instructor Guide

Request a PeerWise account

1. Go to the PeerWise join page.
2. Fill in your information, then click Request instructor account.
3. PeerWise should email you with your username and password within two business days. Once you receive the email, you can log in to your account.

Create a PeerWise course

1. Go to the University of Auckland's PeerWise website.
2. In the search field on top, enter “The University of British Columbia (BC, Canada)”, then click Go.
3. Log in to your account.
4. On the home page, click Create a new course.
5. Give the course a title, and click Preview new course.
6. Check that the course information is correct, and click Yes, create this course.
7. Under “Pending courses”, click Upload student identifiers to activate this course.
8. In the bolded box to the left of the course ID, write a list of identifiers—that is, keywords that will be used to identify each student’s account (e.g., names of cities). Each student will use one of these identifiers to register in your course.
   • To protect student privacy in PeerWise, you must use aliases or fake email addresses as your student identifiers. Do not use personally identifiable information for students like emails, full names, or student numbers.
9. In the "Prompt" box, write what will prompt students to enter their identifier when they create their guest account (e.g., "Enter the city I emailed you", then click Update identifier list and prompt.
10. Provide students with the PeerWise course ID (found on the home page of PeerWise under the course name) and their specific identifier, so they can create guest accounts.

Add PeerWise example questions

By adding sample questions for students, you can set a baseline for the quality of questions you expect them to write as well as test out what the student experience is like.

1. Go to the University of Auckland's PeerWise website.
2. In the search field on top, enter “The University of British Columbia (BC, Canada)”, then click Go.
3. Log in to your account.
4. On the home page, click your course title.
5. Under “Your questions”, click View, then click Create new question.
6. Write your question, provide the multiple-choice answers, and click Select for the correct answer.
7. Provide an explanation for why the answer is correct and add topics for your question. Topics are like tags—they provide ways of categorizing and searching the questions.
8. Click Show me a preview of this question to see how the question will appear. Make edits as needed.
9. When you are ready, click Save question from the preview page to share the question with the students in your course.

Review student questions in PeerWise

Reviewing your students’ questions and answers in PeerWise is a good way of checking that their understanding of the course content is correct. You will also be able to prevent wrong questions and answers from confusing other students.

1. Go to the University of Auckland's PeerWise website.
2. In the search field on top, enter “The University of British Columbia (BC, Canada)”, then click Go.
3. Log in to your account.
4. On the home page, click your course title.
5. Under “Unanswered questions”, click View, then click the number next to the question you wish to review.
6. Click the answer you believe is correct.
7. If you want to provide constructive feedback for the question:
   • Inside of the explanation text box, click Improve explanation.
   • Write your explanation to the question’s answer, and click Save explanation.
8. If you want to provide positive feedback or add additional information relevant to the question:
   • In the comments section, click Write a new comment.
   • Write your comment, and click Save Comment.
9. Rate the difficulty and quality of the question, then click Submit rating and return to question list to save your ratings and select another question.