peerScholar vs WebPA
peerScholar
peerscholar.comWebPA
github.comSide by side
| Figure | peerScholar | WebPA |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $375/mo | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Peer Assessment Software | 7.2 (#10) | 6.9 (#13) |
| Audience | The company invites institutions interested in bringing peerScholar to their institution to contact its team. | The project describes WebPA as an online peer assessment tool for higher education. |
| Purpose | peerScholar uses formative peer assessment to deepen learning while exercising and measuring core skills. | 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 WCET offer describes 24/7 technical support for administrators, faculty, and students through email, in-app, chat, and social media. | 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. |
Plans
In their own words
peerScholar
peerScholar is a formative peer-assessment platform from Cogneeto Inc. Its activity formats are Classic, Case Study, and Group Work. In Classic activities, students submit work, assess peers, receive feedback, and may revise and resubmit. Group Work can include group assessments, individual assessments, and evaluations of group members. Assessment controls include multiple choice, points, dropdowns, star ratings, checkboxes, Likert scales, rubrics, and comments; peer feedback can use scales, matrix rubrics, points, dropdowns, comments, and annotations. Grades may combine instructor or teaching-team evaluations, peer ratings, and participation. The platform connects to learning management systems and virtual learning environments through LTI 1.3 and APIs, with single sign-on, roster, group, and grade synchronization. The WCET offer describes 24/7 support through email, in-app, chat, and social media. It is available through web and API. Pricing is on request; the listed WCET Promotional plan costs $4,500 a year and includes unlimited courses, faculty, team members, students, and activities.
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.