Suggestions for providing feedback

Based on the 2006 Faculty of Education seminar, 'Assessment and Feedback: What Works?'

Improving turn-around time

• Students value quick turnaround time with comments that clearly and logically explain why they received the grade they did.
• It is not necessary to read every word of an essay, assignment. Have a clear idea of the key things you are looking for in a piece of work and scan it quickly to see whether they have attended to them.
• Compile a list of relevant sentence starters and phrases relating to the key points, e.g. Your analysis of …, The development of your argument …, Consideration of theoretical perspectives is …
• Students like personal comments. Show that, even though scanned, you have attended to the points they have made by providing some personal feedback specific to the individual.
• Write feedback on a comment sheet. Do not spend too much time providing detailed comments in the margins of written work. Students generally do not read and appreciate them, particularly if questions are posed to which they may not have answers.
• Provide comments that have broader applicability and will help students to improve assignment work in general. There is little point in providing detailed feedback on how a submitted piece of work could have been improved, because the opportunity to improve that piece has passed, unless resubmission is encouraged.
• Submissions that contain poor expression, spelling and grammar take longer to mark. Expect students to use 'Spell check' and 'Grammar check' to self-correct work before submitting. Do not spend time providing corrections throughout the assignment. If there are too many mistakes on the first page or two, return the work to the student to be corrected. Refer students to academic skills advisors if they need help.

Providing feedback on criterion-referenced assessment

• Criteria help to define what is expected in assessment and should be closely aligned with unit objectives. It is important that the language of feedback is consistent with the language of the criteria upon which assessment is based.
• Students like comments that provide discipline-based insights and address the purpose of their learning. Criteria and feedback should address this need.
• Since students are asked questions on the SETU survey about generic skills such as communication skills, teamwork, etc., criteria should include these, and feedback should highlight them because students often do not recognise they are learning generic skills.
• It is preferable to assess criteria in a qualitative way using terms such as excellent, very good, good, satisfactory, etc, and then provide an overall grade.
• Breaking marks up to match criteria is generally not appropriate because it can skew the overall result.

Providing feedback online

• There are advantages to providing feedback online which include:
  • Students find it easier to read electronic feedback rather than academics' handwriting.
  • Most people can type faster than they write.
  • The 'track changes' features of Word facilitate the speedy provision of feedback, though some students may need help in using them.
• A set of generic statements can be developed ready to cut and paste, then more comments specific to the individual piece of work can be added.
• Online in-text feedback can give students the sense that you have engaged directly with their work - it is more personal.

Providing feedback to international students

• The idea of large assignments that require analysis and evaluation is new to many international students. Provide more information about the assignments in simple, formal language they are more likely to know.
• Run an assessment feedback 'intensive' where overall points of interest, strengths and weaknesses are articulated and discussed. Post a summary of the session online for future reference.
• Provide an overhead graph explaining the difference between a Pass, Credit, Distinction, High Distinction.
• Let students know how the overall cohort has performed, so they can see their performance in context.
• When appropriate, encourage classes to negotiate rubrics. If students have input into them, they are more likely to understand the feedback because it is in language they know.