Setting up FeedbackFruits Peer Review Assignment


Note: Before setting up a FeedbackFruits assignment, make sure to create a new Canvas assignment. Do not enable FeedbackFruits on an existing assignment inside of Canvas or it will delete any instructions that are provided on the assignment.


Creating A New Canvas Assignment

  1. In your Canvas course, navigate to the Assignments are from the course menu. 
  2. In the upper-right hand side of the page, click the + Assignment button. The page will refresh with the new assignment builder and options. 
  3. Scroll to the Submission Type drop-down menu. On this drop-down menu, select the option labeled External Tool. 
  4. Click the Find button to open the list of options. In the list, select the option labeled FeedbackFruits.


Setting up FeedbackFruits Peer Review

  1. In the window that opens, click FeedbackFruits tools and select Peer Review from the list of tools. This will open a quick overview of the Peer Review tool that you can click through.

  2. In the Peer Review name field, title your assignment.

    Note: This name should mirror the title you've given the Canvas assignment. This is to avoid confusion when students go in to complete this FeedbackFruits assignment via the Canvas assignment page, as the title of the Canvas assignment title will  be what students see.

  3. In the Instructions sections, provide the details for your assignment. If needed, you can include documents, audio or video to enhance your instructions or provide templates.

    Select Student Collaboration to confirm whether this peer review is to be handed in individually or as a group.
    If students hand in the peer review individually, you can also select if students are evaluating individual peers in the class, peers within their group, or peers outside their group.
    If students hand in the peer review as a group, you can also select if students are evaluating individual peers in the class or another group of peers. Additionally if students, hand in the peer review as a group, you will be prompted select the Canvas Group Set to use for this peer review assignment.

  4. In the Submissions sections, select the number of files that students are expected to hand in. You can select a minimum, between, of an exact number of files.

    Select Scheduling Deadlines to add a due date to hand in the assignment. This will default to Never but you can click the drop-down menu and select After a certain date. This will provide fields to set a hand in deadline date and time.
    If you have due dates applied to the Canvas assignment, use the same due date in these fields.
    If you allow late submissions, toggle on Handing in late is allowed.
    If you want students who don't submit initially to the assignment to be able to participate in reviewing, toggle on Allow students who didn't hand in to participate in reviewing.

    Select File Requirements to specify what file types students are allowed to submit. Un-select any options that do not apply to your assignment.

    Select Anonymity to allow students to anonymously review peers by toggling on Submitter anonymity.

    Select Visibility to specify who can view handed in assignments. This will default to Only the allocated reviewer(s), but you can also allow Everyone in the course access after the deadline passes or limit to Only students who handed in the assignment.

    Select Guiding Students to specify any additional instructions on handing in the assignment. This could be a note on preferred file types to submit or timelines for receiving grades after the assignment closes.
    This is optional and if you prefer to not leave instructions, leave this field blank.

  5. In the Given Reviews section, next to Feedback criteria, select CONFIGURE. This allows you to create a rubric (gives students a traditional rubric with set criteria and intervals to use in evaluation), scale rating (gives students a sliding scale for students to use in evaluation), or comment criteria (gives students questions to provide commentary evaluation) for students to use when completing their peer reviews. You can re-use previous criteria by selecting the Use rubrics from My library and selecting the criteria you would like to use.
    You will also set the number of peers each student is required to review.
    If you would like students to review themselves, toggle on the Students also do self-assessment option.

    Select Scheduling Deadlines to add a due date to complete the peer review. This will default to Never but you can click the drop-down menu and select After a certain date. This will provide fields to set a feedback submission deadline date and time.
    If you allow late submissions of the assignment, leave the default option of Never selected. This allows students who turn in the assignment late to still complete peer reviews.

    Select Allocations to set how students will be assigned peers to review. Click Change next to the Allocation method if you do not wish for the automatic assignment of peer reviews. You can also choose to manually allocate reviews or allow students to self-select who they review.

    Select Anonymity to allow students to anonymously review peers by toggling on Reviewer anonymity.

    Select Visibility to specify when students can review feedback they've received. This will default to Immediately but you can click the drop-down menu and select After the review deadline; After a certain date; or Never (releases manually).  

    Select Guiding Students to specify any additional instructions on providing feedback on the assignment. You can toggle on several options here including Feedback tips for reviewing; a Review checklist; or the Automated feedback coach (AI-driven).
    If you select Feedback tips for reviewing, you will be provided a pre-formatted list of tips. You can remove tips from the list by clicking the X next to each list item or add custom tips by clicking ADD ANOTHER TIP.
    If you select Review checklist, you will be able to add review questions for students to respond to while completing their peer review.
    This is optional and if you prefer to not leave instructions or enable the features within this section, leave this field blank.

  6. In the Received reviews section, you specify if students rate their reviewers feedback and set a scheduling deadline to complete that rating.

    Select Scheduling Deadlines to add a due date to read received reviews. This will default to Never but you can click the drop-down menu and select After a certain date. This will provide fields to set a read-by deadline date and time
    If you want students to always have access to their reviews, leave the default option of Never selected.

  7. In the Grading section, select CONFIGURE to set the areas within the Peer Review assignment that are required to complete the assignment. You can toggle on or off different components that you've set as part of the assignment and apply weights to each part of the assignment. These weights should total 100% (or your required percentage to be considered passing). Any component that you do not want to contribute to the grade can be toggled off.

    Select Grading options to specifiy to publish the grade as a Percentage (default option) or as Pass/fail. If you leave the default option of Percentage, you will need to set the percentage that students need to pass the assignment.

  8. Additional Learning Steps You Can Add (Optional)

    If you click the + icon, you can choose to add the additional learning steps Participation grading and/or Reflect on activity to the assignment. Click on ADD to enable either of these options in your assignment sections.

    (If added) In the Participation grading section, students can highlight their best contributions (comments, replies) for the teacher to grade. You can select how many contributions students are required to highlight.

    Select Scheduling Deadlines to add a due date to complete these highlight selections. This will default to Never but you can click the drop-down menu and select After a certain date. This will provide fields to set a highlight selection deadline date and time.
    If you allow late submissions of the assignment, leave the default option of Never selected. This allows students who turn in the assignment late to still complete peer reviews.

    Under Grading options, you will note that this isn't currently configurable and provides a basic 1 to 10 rating scale.

    Select Guiding Students to specify any additional instructions on selecting highlights in the assignment. This could be a note on how to select contributions or timelines for receiving grades after the assignment closes.
    This is optional and if you prefer to not leave instructions, leave this field blank.

    (If added) In the Reflections section, students can reflect on what they have learned after they have given and received feedback. You can add word count minimum and maximums for this component.

    Select Scheduling Deadlines to add a due date to complete the reflection. This will default to Never but you can click the drop-down menu and select After a certain date. This will provide fields to set a reflection deadline date and time.
    If you allow late submissions of the assignment, leave the default option of Never selected. This allows students who turn in the assignment late to still complete the reflection.

    Under Grading options, you will note that this isn't currently configurable and provides a basic 1 to 10 rating scale.

    Select Guiding Students to specify any additional instructions on reflecting on the assignment. This is optional and if you prefer to not leave instructions, leave this field blank.

  9. Click Save in the upper right-hand corner of the window.  This will refresh you back to the External Tools selector window. Click Select to confirm the FeedbackFruits settings to the assignment.

  10. Add in a due date in the field provided on the Canvas assignment and click Save & Publish to finalize the assignment to share with students.

Example: Quick Setup Checklist for Instructor


This checklist is an example checklist from a course that uses ungrading to determine grades in a course. You can create a checklist similiar to the one below that is specific to your course. 

  • Title assignment in Canvas and FeedbackFruits the same
  • Under Instructions section, provide instructions in the field provided
    • If copying and pasting from a document, clear the formatting after pasting.
    • Add in due dates for each component in FeedbackFruits
    • Add how to recieve a complete on the assignment
    • Set student collaboration settings (only if a group project)
  • Under the Submissions section, change scheduling deadlines to assignment due date: In the section labeled This task closes, choose the option after a certain date > Choose assignment due date > Turn on Handing in late is allowed (if late submissions are allowed)
    • Choose file requirements
  • Under the Given Reviews section, configure feedback and add comment criterion. Make sure to add reflection questions to comment criterion to prompt students on how to respond in comments.
    • Set the number of required peer reviews to complete
    • Toggle on students also do self-assessment and turn on automated feedback coach
  • Click the + button at the bottom and choose to add a reflections section (this will show up above grading section)
    • Add reflection question such as: What is one thing you would add/change/edit?
  • Under Grading section, configure grading components: Toggle on has written the required reflection, make sure all components total to 100%, change settings to Pass/fail, and require 100% to pass
  • Click Save

Instructions Template:


This template shows dates added to the top summary of instructions, summary of instructions for peer review, review comment expectations, and then how the assignment will be marked complete.


Assignment hand-in due Sunday, February 18th at 11:59 PM.

Peer Reviews due Sunday, February 25th at 11:59 PM.


After following the steps on the assignment overview page, create three parts to create a story. This can be written, or audio/video recorded to be presented to your classmates for peer review. After turning in your assignment, you will be responsible to review your own story with 2 other peers using the assignment rubric and by leaving comments.


Make sure that your review comments include responses to the following:

    • One suggestion I have is...
    • One strength of the story is...


For this assignment to be marked as complete, make sure all rubric criteria is included in the assignment; you have reviewed yourself and 2 peers; you have reviewed teacher and peer feedback; and you have written a self-reflection.

Canvas Documentation


UW-IT Documentation


Feedback Fruits Documentation


Instructor Guides


Student Guides