The other day, I wrote about how I used Google Docs and Applescript to lubricate the peer review workflow in a class I’m teaching. My set-up is certainly imperfect, and here I want to comment on a couple improvements that I could make, when I can find the time.

At present, a student submits peer review comments to a Google Form that gets written to a Google spreadsheet that I need to download by hand to a Numbers spreadsheet and process with an Applescript. The script produces a PDF that I need to email to students by hand.

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So, I’ve just had a chance to bend Google tools and Applescript to the service of teaching. In the event that someone else might find this interesting, I thought I’d share the story. Details are available to those who request them in the comments.

This semester, I get to teach an interdisciplinary seminar for juniors that’s writing enhanced. This means that the students need to write a lot and I need to read and comment on their writing. When I began teaching this course, I took advantage of peer reviewing. This is where each student has two other students read their writing and share comments. It gets the students to think about ‘good writing’ more (theirs and that of others). To keep them focused on the issues of interest to us in the course, I made a two-page ‘Writing Checklist’ for each peer reader to fill out as they read another’s writing.

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