Learning activity

Peer review of student designed learning games

Template to help students critically evaluate peer-designed learning games through structured gameplay experience, providing evidence-based feedback on game design, learning effectiveness, and overall player experience.

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Created by:

Sebastian Pahs

Hong Kong Baptist University

Pedagogy

Peer Review

Learning outcome

Prep time

Intermediate (10-30 min)

Activity type

Learning Activity

Why this learning activity?

Learning activities targeting high-order skills like this one can help you activate students more effectively. This learning activity will help you with:

Evaluative Judgement

Students will apply structured assessment criteria to peer-designed learning games, deepening their understanding of quality in learning design and project expectations.

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Constructive Feedback

Students will provide specific, evidence-based feedback grounded in direct gameplay experience, supporting the iterative improvement of peers' projects and strengthening critical thinking skills.

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Reflective Self-Regulation

Students will review received feedback and compare it against their own work, identifying performance gaps and developing self-regulatory skills to inform their own design development.

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Activity setup

Activity steps Activity goals Tools used In this activity

Peer review of student designed learning games

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Activity steps

Read instructions: Students carefully review the instructions and learning outcomes of the activity before getting started.
Submission: As a group, students submit a brief description of their learning game concept to anchor the peer review process. They then play and experience the learning games created by other groups during class.
Peer review: Students evaluate the games they played in class by rating them according to given criteria and providing specific, constructive feedback based on their gameplay experience.
Received reviews and feedback-on-feedback: Students review the feedback they received and rate each comment on a usefulness scale of 1 to 10, with the option to add written clarification.
Reflection: Students reflect on the outcomes of the activity and their learning.
Grading: Grades are based on giving feedback to their peers, the average rating received on those reviews, reading the feedback, and reflecting on the activity.

Learning Activities Used

Peer Review

Stimulate lifelong learning with peer feedback

In this activity

The activity is grounded in direct, in-class gameplay experience — students review and evaluate the games they have just played together, making feedback concrete, contextual, and immediately relevant.
The activity guides students to evaluate peer-designed learning games through structured criteria, assessing game design, learning effectiveness, and how effectively the target language is integrated into gameplay.
Students submit their game concept as a group but complete peer reviews individually, allowing for cross-group learning and familiarisation with assessment criteria and project expectations.
A feedback-on-feedback and reflection step are included, shifting students from passive recipients to active evaluators and prompting them to identify performance gaps to support self-regulation and design development.
Both submitter and reviewer anonymity is enabled to encourage honest, constructive feedback, though these settings can be adjusted to suit your course structure.