Enabling Peer Review on your Canvas assignment gives students a way to provide feedback on their classmates’ work. The peer review process exposes students to different perspectives and approaches to the same task, and can often deepen their understanding of the material. Peer review can be used for various types of assignments, such as:
Peer review can be used for various types of assignments, such as:
Writing assignments (essays, reports, research papers)
Multimedia projects (videos, presentations)
Problem sets or coding exercises
Artistic or creative works (drawings, designs, compositions)
Enhanced Peer Review features now available
Starting September 2026, PSU Canvas includes enhanced Peer Review functionality. While you may continue setting up your Peer Review assignments as you had previously, once you enable enhanced Peer Review features in your course(s) you’ll be able to:
Enable enhanced Peer Review features in Canvas settings (first use only)
OAI recommends using the enhanced peer review functionality for the best student experience. Before you can use the enhanced peer review features described in this article, you must enable 3 feature options in each course in which you wish to use Peer Review.
Navigate to the Canvas course in which you wish to enable enhanced Peer Review.
Select Settings from the left course navigation.
Select Feature Options from the top navigation bar.
Toggle the following feature flags to show a green check mark (enabled). All of these features must be enabled in order for enhanced Peer Review to be available.
Enhanced Rubrics
Peer Review Allocation and Grading
Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader
You may now use enhanced Peer Review in this course.
Repeat these steps as needed to enable enhanced Peer Review in additional courses.
How do I set up a Peer Review Assignment or Discussion using Canvas Enhanced Peer Review?
Canvas supports peer review through Discussions and Assignments. When creating a new activity, enable the “Peer Review” option to add peer review functionality to the assignment. Follow the Canvas Community guides for details on how to set up Enhanced peer review.
Once the assignment is published, you can monitor the progress of submissions and peer reviews through the Assignments page. Canvas provides an overview of the peer review status, allowing you to see which students have completed their reviews and which ones are still pending. If needed, you can extend deadlines or reassign peer reviews to ensure each submission receives the required number of reviews. There’s also a Reminder tool you can use to send a notification to students who have not completed their assigned reviews!
What should students expect?
Using enhanced Peer Review will also improve how students experience Peer Review assignments in Canvas. When instructors configure enhanced peer review settings correctly, students should see:
Clear deadlines and expectations for peer reviews
Peer review tasks surfaced more consistently across Canvas (e.g. in the calendar and to-do list)
Can view grades/feedback for peer review in grades
Peer review assignment shows up as separate item in the To Do List
Peer review assignments will be nested with original submission in Modules and Assignments
As the instructor, you may want to provide feedback to the students on the peer reviews. Canvas allows you to comment and grade the peer reviews themselves, offering feedback on the quality and accuracy of the reviews. You can also use SpeedGrader to view each student’s work alongside the peer reviews they received, making it easier to assess their overall performance and provide your own feedback.
What else should I know about using Canvas Peer Review?
Consider sharing a model and/or rubric.
Peer review may be new to some students. Consider sharing a model and/or rubric that gives students a framework for providing feedback. If you attach a rubric to the assignment, peer reviewers are also able to access and use this rubric in their review. Rubrics used by peer reviewers for feedback are not included in the final grade.
Tips for Peer Review with group assignments
Peer review can also work with group assignments. Create a group set to assign students to specific groups and distribute peer review tasks accordingly. Some important things to know about using peer review for group assignments:
Peer reviews are assigned to individuals, not groups. Each group only needs to have one member submit the assignment, but this submission will show up for every student in the group. When the peer reviewer makes comments on their assigned classmate, these comments are compiled with other comments from reviewers who were assigned the same submission. In this way, each member of the group will see comments from all the peer reviewers in their feedback.
By default, automatically assigned peer reviews will not be assigned to members of the same group. If you would like to allow group members to review their own group’s work, be sure to check the option to “Allow peer reviews within groups”. This will randomize the peer review assignments, not paying attention to group membership. (Note: The only way to ensure that students are assigned only to members of their own group is to manually allocate peer reviews.)
Can I continue to use the prior Canvas Peer Review functionality?
OAI recommends upgrading to Canvas’s Enhanced Peer Review functionality as it offers a streamlined experience for students. However, if you wish to continue facilitating your peer review with a more manual set up, you may do so. The following Canvas Community Guides outline the process for setting up peer reviews under the prior feature set.
