Meet Peerceptiv: The company changing higher education through peer learning and assessment

Interview with Jonathan Olshock, COO & Director of Partnerships at Peerceptiv.

Peerceptiv provides infinitely scalable learning through AI-enhanced peer assessment. The research-validated scoring measures and enhances 21st century skills essential for success both in the classroom and in the workforce.

What traction do you have so far?

Peerceptiv supports instructors at over 50 universities and organizations across North America, Europe, and China who need more engaging, effective, and evidence-based assessment in their courses. Many institutions continue to seek methods to deliver meaningful learning experiences for their students even as class sizes increase into the hundreds. Peerceptiv has also seen rapid growth in China to prepare English Language Learners for graduate school abroad and the workforce.

What is the story and inspiration behind starting Peerceptiv?

When Mark Limbach met Dr. Chris Schunn from the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, they shared a mutual concern about the ability for education delivery to scale in the face of ever-growing class sizes and the transition to larger online learning environments. The types of assignments that truly help students develop higher-order thinking skills and engage deeply with material are those that require the heaviest lift from teachers. Dr. Schunn had been working on how to effectively scale peer to peer learning by utilizing an incentive-based model of peer review. Mark was inspired by Chris’s research and the impact it had on learning outcomes for students, so they began working together to develop a commercial version of the research tool to expand its impact to students from all backgrounds.

What is the unmet market need or challenge that Peerceptiv is addressing?

As education continues to scale and become “unbundled”, there is a need to provide active learning models at scale. The students who are graduating post-secondary institutions today are underprepared for the ever-changing workplace and has led to an incredible “skills-gap” in the economy. How can organizations provide essential, evidence-based assessment when student-to-instructor ratios continue to increase? There is an over reliance on other forms of scalable assessment like multiple-choice, not because it is good pedagogy, but because it is cost effective and easy to facilitate. This model is failing our students.

How does your company solve the proposed problem and why are you the team to solve this problem?

With Peerceptiv, universities and organizations can achieve a high standard of learning outcomes with the same ease of use and scalability as multiple choice assessments. Assignments like writing, group work, projects, multimedia creation, etc. improve student engagement and completion rates while better preparing them to enter a fluid workforce environment. The Peerceptiv peer assessment process facilitates a smooth academic dialogue amongst peers while providing valid and reliable grades without the need for any instructor intervention. The learning data analytics generated from this process informs instructors on where to improve their content and delivery methods and guides them on providing additional support for underperforming students.

Why are you participating in the LearnLaunch Accelerator? Why did you choose this program?

At Peerceptiv, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our team and leverage the experience of other leaders in the Edtech space. With Venture Partners from leading organizations like ETS, LearnLaunch was the obvious choice for an assessment company like ours. A recent addition to our product, asynchronous peer assessment, has huge potential to better support the growing online learning and digital credentialing markets. Access to the experienced and connected team at LearnLaunch will help us identify and prepare for opportunities to expand, supporting our mission of enabling learners from every background to prepare for future success.

Learn more about Peerceptiv on their website https://www.peerceptiv.com/. Also follow them on Twitter @peerceptiv.