Expertiza vs WebPA
Expertiza
expertiza.ncsu.eduWebPA
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Expertiza | WebPA |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Peer Assessment Software | 7.9 (#6) | 6.9 (#13) |
| Audience | The project says it is used in select NC State courses and by professors at several other colleges and universities. | The project describes WebPA as an online peer assessment tool for higher education. |
| Hosting | The repository documents running Expertiza locally and using an NC State VCL image prepared with its environment. | The installation instructions describe configuring the application, database credentials, and environment variables for a WebPA instance. |
| Intended users | The project documentation describes tools for instructors to deploy assignments and for students to submit work and review assignments. | WebPA is designed for teams of students doing group work in higher education. |
| Open source | An Expertiza project page describes the application as open source and based on Ruby on Rails. | WebPA is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3. |
| Pricing | The opened product and project pages do not state a commercial price or subscription plan. | The project describes WebPA as freely available for everyone to use within their teaching. |
| Purpose | Expertiza is software for creating reusable learning objects through peer review and supports team projects. | WebPA is an online peer assessment system for student teams, using peer and self-grading to help determine individual grades from a group mark. |
| Support | The repository directs developers to setup documentation and invites code contributions through GitHub pull requests. | The project site says Loughborough's support for WebPA has ended and points users to archived documentation and a JISC mailing list for community support. |
In their own words
Expertiza
Expertiza is a free, open-source web application for instructors to deploy assignments and students to submit and peer-review learning objects. Submissions can include articles, code, websites, URLs, and wiki pages; students can also form teams and sign up for topics. The system supports rubric scoring, moderation, one-way reviewer anonymity, and manual review allocation. The project says it is used in select NC State courses and by professors at several other colleges and universities. It can be run locally or deployed to production, with development setup guides for Ubuntu/Debian, macOS, and Linux RHEL. Developers need a JVM. A documented Moodle LTI integration allows assignments to launch from Moodle and sends grades to its gradebook, but setup requires a Moodle administrator to register and activate Expertiza as an external tool provider. The project also describes a generic synchronization interface intended for LMS platforms such as Blackboard or Canvas. The repository lists an MIT license and points to instructor and student manuals, presentations, and videos.
WebPA
WebPA is an open-source, self-hosted web system for peer and self-assessment in higher-education group work. It combines peer assessments, self-assessments, and a group mark to calculate individual grades, with rubric scoring and moderation tools. Administrators download the application and configure a local instance, database credentials, and environment variables. The latest version lists PHP 7.4 or 8.0 with MySQLi, Sessions, and XML extensions enabled; Composer and the repository release page provide download routes. Standard installation does not include LTI support, but a separate connector can link WebPA with LTI-compliant environments such as Blackboard Learn, WebCT, and Moodle. Where services are available, it can synchronize memberships, groups, grades, outcomes, settings, enrolments, and timestamps; Moodle and Canvas membership and group services can use their APIs. WebPA is free and licensed under GNU GPL version 3. Loughborough support has ended, with archived documentation on GitHub and community support directed to the JISC mailing list.