Location: Assignments > Create assignments > Create a peer-review assignment > Manage groups in peer-review assignments

Manage peer-review groups/teams

Even the best-planned peer-review assignment may need to have adjustments made to the group or team memberships. In order to minimize the effects of moving, adding, and removing students from groups, the MyLab uses the conventions detailed in the following sections.

Note: "Started work on a peer-review assignment" means that a student has opened and saved one of the assignment's documents. "Submitting an assignment" means that a student has submitted his or her review comments to you for a grade.

Moving students from one group to another

You can move a student from one group to another only in one of the following instances:
- The student has not yet submitted the base assignment.
- The student has submitted the base assignment but has not yet started the peer-review assignment.
You cannot move a student to another group when either of the following has occurred:
- The student has started work on the peer-review assignment.
- The student has submitted his or her work on the peer-review assignment.

Removing students from a group

When you need to remove students from groups, it is unavoidable that some students will have more documents to review than other students. To minimize this effect, the MyLab handles these situations as follows:

If no other group member has started to review the removed student's base assignment, the removed student's base assignment is no longer available for review by the other group members. That is, the remaining group members have one less document to review.
If another student (reviewer) is already reviewing the removed student's base assignment, the reviewer can still complete and submit her or his review of the removed student's base assignment.
If another student (reviewer) has submitted a review of the removed student's base assignment, the reviewer's work remains intact for you to grade; that is, you will receive the reviewer's comments on the removed student's document as well as the other members' documents.

Adding students to a group

As with removing students, adding students to a group often adds work for the entire group. To minimize this effect, the MyLab handles this as follows:

If you reassign a student to a group in which no one has started work on the assignment, then the group just gains a new member. For example, if you add a student to an existing group of three members and no one has started work on the assignment, each group member, including the new member, now has three documents to review.
If you reassign a student to a group in which one or more members have started work on the assignment but have not submitted it, then the group gains a new member and an additional document to review. That is, all group members have the same number of papers to review.
If you reassign a student to a group in which one or more members (reviewers) have submitted their completed assignments, those reviewers do not need to review an additional document. Any group members who have not yet submitted their reviews now have an additional document to review.
Similarly, when you reassign a student to a group in which all members have already submitted their reviews, then the new member reviews the original group members' documents. The original members do not need to do any further work.

How do I know who's done what?

When you open either the Peer Review Assignment Details window or the Step 3: Add/Edit Groups page, the MyLab displays icons showing where students are in the process of completing the assignment. These icons are:

Base draft submitted

Peer-review assignment started

Peer-review assignment submitted

To display the icon legend, point to the Icon Key link.