Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sstephany Head on March 18, 2009 at 6:30am

The ability to provide value to my peers, and to the overall content of Merlot.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on March 18, 2009 at 10:25am

I think you would enjoy the community and discussion that takes place with people involved in peer review. Additionally, I'll mention the MERLOT International Conference in August as a great place to mingle with peers: http://conference.merlot.org/2009/

Permalink Reply by Zdenka Jarvis on March 18, 2009 at 2:13pm

I think the biggest asset of becoming peer reviewer is that it allows you to keep current with teaching materials. And also gives you the opportunity to be involved in the selection process. There is difference between good expert and good teacher. Sometimes the book or web page can be very informative and useful for teacher but is completely useless to student. Just from the plain fact that the student does not have background, that's why they are students.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on March 18, 2009 at 2:56pm

Excellent points, Zdenka. That's why we insist that our Peer Reviewers be instructors at an institution of higher learning. I agree with your point about the information being useful for students.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on March 18, 2009 at 2:57pm

By the way, have you tried the Romanian translation of the MERLOT site? I'd be interested in hearing what your impression is of the translation.

Permalink Reply by Zdenka Jarvis on March 25, 2009 at 10:42am

I haven't. I'm czech and have no clue about romanian language. Sorry.

Permalink Reply by Mahmut Tamersoy on March 21, 2009 at 2:08am

Peer reveiewing looks like a good opportunity to:
1. Keep current in one’s field of interest.
2. Establish a formal evaluation process of teaching resources.
3. Help accumulating better quality teaching reasorces.
4. Help increasing the quality of teaching through better quality resources.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on March 25, 2009 at 5:24pm

Many of our Peer Reviewers say that it helps them improve their own teaching. Seeing how someone else prepares materials can provide a different slant on course content for them. I'm also always amazed at how much work people put into developing their course content.

Permalink Reply by Christina Bonner on March 25, 2009 at 9:22am

Like Zdenka, I think that peer reviewing would be a great professional development opportunity. It would also be a way of contributing, of giving back, to peers who have created materials and are devoting time to share those with all of us.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on March 25, 2009 at 5:26pm

Christina, if you're interested in becoming a Peer Reviewer, you can read more about it at: http://taste.merlot.org/peerreviewer.html
Please consider registering for our next GRAPE Camp that starts April 1st. There will be another one in June, too, but I don't have the dates yet.

Permalink Reply by kenn pitawanakwat on June 22, 2009 at 10:08am

I like the idea of picking and choosing peer reviews based on availability. And I am now curious as to which materials might exist out there to suit my particular needs. Kenn Pitawanakwat