iParadigms Announces Next-Generation Peer Review Solution for Turnitin

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- iParadigms today announced PeerMark, its next-generation peer review product for educators. This web-based collaborative tool enables high school and college instructors to quickly create and manage peer review assignments in which students read and provide substantive comments on each other's work.

"PeerMark is the most powerful and complete peer review system we've ever developed," said Dr. John Barrie, the company's product strategist. "It delivers all the benefits of peer collaboration without the paper-and-pen hassles. It makes peer review practical and efficient for even the largest classes with hundreds or thousands of students, and it gives a big boost to teacher productivity in an era of increasing class sizes."

Peer review is a popular teaching practice, with a strong body of evidence showing that it helps improve student writing, editing and critical thinking. But in its paper-and-pen form, peer reviewing presents logistical challenges especially for larger classes. There was no simple way to distribute and share copies of papers, or manage assignments so that feedback is legible, consistent and useful. Nor do generic web collaboration tools provide the specialized features needed to design and manage assignments through the various stages of the writing process.

PeerMark eliminates these challenges and complexities. Using a simple web-based interface, teachers can set up and manage assignments, provide structured guidance and monitor the results with minimal effort. Students can easily upload, review and comment on each other's papers, prompted by instructor-supplied questions and guidelines.

PeerMark is a component of the Turnitin WriteCycle solution and will replace the previous-generation student-to-student feedback tool known as Peer Review in January 2010. PeerMark is a major improvement over its predecessor, offering greater flexibility, ease of use, integration with major course management systems like Moodle and Blackboard, and powerful features such as palette-based markup and editing tools. Current licensees of Peer Review will be able to upgrade to PeerMark at no extra charge when it becomes available. PeerMark will be available in both English and Spanish.

Other products in the WriteCycle solution include GradeMark®, for digital markup and grading, and Turnitin Originality Checking, which prevents plagiarism and ensures that collaborating students need not worry about misappropriation of their work.

About iParadigms LLC
iParadigms LLC is the leader in textual intellectual property protection and a pioneer of web-based services for collaborative, online educational support. The company is at the forefront of using technology to increase awareness of best practices in teaching and learning as it relates to the use of other people's textual content. The company's award-winning WriteCycle product suite includes Turnitin, the leading originality checking and plagiarism prevention service used by millions of students and faculty and thousands of institutions in more than 100 countries.