Peer Review

Kaizena

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Give your students fast, high quality feedback on their work. Record voice comments to convey emotion, embed videos to explain complex concepts, and track skills.
Type of Material:: Assessment Tool
Recommended Uses:: Feedback, homework, compositions, assignments, group work
Technical Requirements:: A computer with an internet connection, microphone and speaker, and a Google account
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Ability to record voice comments for students, saving time while giving feedback. Voice comments are up to 75% faster, and allow you to convey tone to students. Save frequent comments to reuse quickly: from explanations of comma splices to YouTube videos, lessons can save you time. They also have a selection of pre-made curated lessons to choose from. Rate students on skills they demonstrate in their work, and see how they improve over time. Customize each skill to fit your needs.
Target Student Population:: Middle School, High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional, Grade School
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None; use of voice tools previously is helpful but not necesary.

Rating:
Strengths:: Kaizena presents no unique learning content, but sits on top of content as a way to provide formative and/or summative feedback on compositions and work created in Google Docs. Closing the feedback loop with timely information creates community in the online classroom, and Kaizena supports this humanization.

Rating:
Strengths:: Kaizena works with any discipline or subject that leverages Google Docs for the creation of content - as such, the feedback provided through the tool makes it easier for students to learn and prove mastery of the course content. The site learns frequently used items for reuse to save user time. It includes tools for those whose first language is not English.

Rating:
Strengths:: The layout could not be easier to use - once the Chrome extension is added to your browser, you can open the recording interface with a single click. Recordings are simple to append as comments, and you can save common responses to reuse them, saving valuable time. Additionally, you can align feedback to intended learning outcomes, turning Kaizena into an assessment tool. Leveraging the Google interface makes it a straightforward process for students to receive feedback in an environment that they know and understand.
Concerns:: None.