Journal of Computer Assisted Learning

Peer response is useful to improve student writing. However, traditional peer response takes a single mode, which has some problems, such as effort for preparation of documents or ambiguous feedback. To address these problems, this study presents two peer response approaches, that is, an integrative approach and a game‐based integrative approach. Additionally, whether students with these two peer response approaches and those with a non‐peer response approach performed differently is examined in this study, where students' ability levels were also considered. The findings suggest that students with the peer response generally demonstrated better writing performance than those without the peer response. Furthermore, students with the game‐based integrative approach showed better writing quality than those with the integrative approach. Moreover, the former was more helpful in giving direct feedback on surface features and criticism than the latter. However, the usefulness of peer response approaches was associated with ability levels. More specifically, the integrative approach was beneficial for the high‐ability students to improve on their written expression in the aspect of length of composition, while the game‐based integrative approach was advantageous to enhance the low‐ability students' writing quality in the aspect of clear paragraph.