Feedback - Amazon S3s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/.../Feedback.pdf · on campaigning for exam feedback and so far we have distributed 40,000 stickers to studentsÕ unions all around

Introduction and History of the CampaignSince the introduction of the National Student Survey (NSS) in 2005, feedback has been at the forefront of discussions around the academic experience of students. Regardless of institution, background or course, students have always been significantly less satisfied about the feedback they receive on their work compared to other elements of their learning experience.

As well as using the results from the NSS, NUS has conducted more detailed research as part of its Student Experience Report which identifies how long it takes for students to receive feedback and how useful it was for improving their learning. The NUS Student Experience Report 2008 showed that only 25 per cent of people interviewed received individual verbal feedback from their tutors, even though this ranks as one of the most requested methods, with 72 per cent, of people interviewed, saying that they would like to receive feedback in this way. The report also showed that one quarter of students regularly had to wait more than five weeks to receive feedback.

The NSS has successfully brought attention to this problem with hard statistical evidence

reinforced by NUS’ own research, and the national union believes that this is a vital campaign area for Higher Education.

In 2008 NUS launched the ‘Great NUS Feedback Amnesty’ which called on students around the country to comment on the quality of feedback they receive to their institution. The results of this were the starting point for the creation of the ten principles of feedback, which were decided on after a consultation with students and students’ unions.

In 2009 NUS included a specific section on campaigning for exam feedback and so far we have distributed 40,000 stickers to students’ unions all around the UK to help them to campaign for exam feedback.

2010 saw the launch of the assessment feedback form, which helped to set up a dialogue between students’ unions and institutions on the specific content of feedback students would like to receive.

This section of the toolkit will bring together all of these strands of the campaign into one place, aims to build on the knowledge gained over the last two years, launches a new campaign strand on self evaluative feedback and will give some practical tips on how to successfully run a campaign on feedback.

Feedback 1

So why is feedback so important?Often provided in the form of a grade or a percentage mark and usually at the end of a course or a period of learning, feedback is used as an evaluative tool to represent an pre-determined standard of achievement. However, feedback can take a wide variety of forms and need not simply be a reflection of achievement. Common agreement concludes that effective feedback can:

Promote an individual’s learning journey and encourage greater achievement.

Enable students to reflect and develop on their strengths and weaknesses.

Foster greater levels of self-esteem and motivation which, in turn, can result in greater progress.

Enable tutors to realign their teaching content and teaching methods in response to learners’ needs.

Encourage a more effective dialogue between teachers and students.

Develop core skills around self-assessment and peer-to-peer evaluation.

The most common form of feedback is known as summative feedback because the feedback is given on summative assessment tasks. Summative assessment is the assessment of learning and the result of which will count towards an overall qualification. Summative assessment is traditionally taken at the end of a period of study and acts as a measure of how well a student has understood the subject area.

The other form of feedback is known as formative feedback which is the feedback given on formative assessment. Formative assessment differs from summative assessment because it aims to be an assessment for learning and is usually made up of small tasks during the course which helps tutors to ascertain which areas a student needs more support with. Formative feedback should be an integral part of day to day teaching, but is currently

not a widespread practice within higher education. By ensuring students have access to formative feedback, we are ensuring that students are equipped with the tools and knowledge in order to progress and develop within themselves and their work.

For more information on different types of assessment practice please see page 45 (located in the assessment section).

Student Experience and OpinionThere has been a range of research on student experience and student opinion on feedback mechanisms. The National Student Survey (NSS) was first commissioned in 2005 to measure the satisfaction of students following the increase in undergraduate fees. There are 22 questions split into seven sections which explore the academic experiences of third year full-time and fourth year part-time students. As table 1 shows, since 2005, assessment and feedback has consistently remained the lowest scoring section of the NSS even though there has been a six per cent overall increase in the satisfaction of students. Further exploration of the figures indicates how questions specifically on feedback (q 7-9) fare far worse when separated from those on assessment (q 5-6).

Table 1: section results for the NSS 2005 and 2009

2005 2005

The teaching on my course

77% 83%

Assessment and feedback

59% 65%

Academic support 67% 74%

Organisation and management

69% 72%

Learning resources 76% 80%

Personal development 75% 79%

Overall satisfaction 79% 81%

Average of Feedback (q 7-9)

54% 59%

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Worryingly, the NSS shows us that different students have different experiences of feedback, and current assessment feedback provisions are resulting in varying levels of satisfaction amongst students. As table 3 indicates, statistics from the 2009 NSS show students defined as dyslexic are less satisfied that student with no known disability or students with a disability other than dyslexia. Similarly, students from the EU are far less satisfied with the feedback they receive compared to UK and international students.

Table 3: Percentage agreement for feedback broken down by disability and domicile (below)

If equality and fairness is meant to lie at the heart of every aspect of the student experience, from admissions right through to assessment then these are indeed worrying figures which demand further research and exploration.

The National Student Survey gives a good indication of the overall experiences of students within higher education, but the limited questions mean that further research is necessary to ascertain what some of the issues and solutions of feedback are.

When we look at the results for the specific feedback questions, as shown in table 2, we can see that most students are least satisfied with the content of their feedback saying that it hasn’t helped them clarify things they did not understand.

Table 2: The results of the feedback questions in the NSS from 2005 – 2009

Disability Domicile

No known Disability

Dyslexia Disability (excl Dyslexia)

UK EU (excl UK) Other

7. Feedback on my work has been prompt.

58% 55% 58% 58% 56% 64%

8. I have received detailed comments on my work. 63% 62% 65% 63% 56% 64%

9. Feedback on my work has helped me clarify things I did not understand.

58% 55% 59% 57% 54% 60%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

7. Feedback on my work has been prompt.

54% 54% 55% 56% 58%

8. I have received detailed comments on my work.

56% 57% 62% 61% 63%

9. Feedback on my work has helped me clarify things I did not understand.

51% 52% 55% 56% 57%

Percentage agreement for feedback broken down by disability and domicile NSS 2009

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Less than a week

One to two weeks

Three to four weeks

Five to six weeks

Seven weeks or more

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

0%7%

1%16%

37%33%

57%18%

5%4%

Chart 1: Results from 2009 NUS/HSBC Student Experience Report

In 2008 NUS started a three year project into researching all aspects of the student experience from the quality of their courses to accommodation and finance. It highlighted that the most common form of feedback students received was through written marks or grades (89 per cent) and through written comments (83 per cent). However only 25 per cent of students said that they received individual verbal feedback compared to 66 per cent of students who expressed a preference for this approach to feedback. The full results can be found in table 4 below.

The NUS Student Experience Report also shows that the majority of students, 55 per

cent, receive feedback within four weeks; however 23 per cent of respondents said that it takes five weeks or more to receive feedback from coursework. In addition, variability appears to be a significant issue, as 22 per cent of respondents answered that it was impossible to say as it varies so much. Those people that said that timing did not meet their expectation were then asked how long they would expect it to take to receive feedback on their coursework. As can be seen in chart 1 below, the expectations are heavily skewed towards feedback being received sooner, with the majority, 62 per cent, expecting feedback within 1-2 weeks.

Table 4: results from 2009 NUS/HSBC student Experience Report

How do you receive feedback on your coursework?

What would be the most useful way for you to receive feedback on your coursework? Please select all that apply

Written grades/ marks 89% 69%

Written comments 83% 81%

Verbal feedback provided in an individual meeting with the tutor/ lecturer who set the work

25% 66%

Verbal feedback provided in a group meeting with the tutor/ lecturer who set the work

22% 27%

Don’t know 1% 1%

Q35. How long would you reasonably expect it to take to receive feedback on your coursework?

Q33. How long on average dies it take for you to receive feedback on your coursework?

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Common Complaints about Assessment FeedbackWhilst some experiences of assessment feedback can be transformative and motivating, others can confuse and distress1.There are numerous reasons influencing this and five common criticisms worth highlighting are:

Ambiguity - Comments such as ‘poor effort’ and ‘could do better’ are examples of indistinct feedback that fail to offer anything substantive about where improvements could be made and learning enhanced. If feedback is vague this can lead to students having no real understanding of where they went wrong and how they should move forward. This ultimately leaves the assessment meaningless as the student is unable to apply their learning to their next project.2

Lateness - Students need time to reflect on comments made in feedback for them to improve the standard of their work and develop their learning through the duration of the course. Returning work late, in some cases after the module has been completed, greatly diminishes the learning experience. Research in 2000 highlighted that this is a common occurrence with 59 per cent of respondents feeling that their feedback was received ‘too late to be useful’.3

Miscommunication - If feedback takes the form of a one-way transmission of opinion from the tutor to the student, in a feedback sheet for instance, it leaves little room to ensure the student actually understands what the tutor is trying to communicate. Another frequent complaint is that handwritten feedback is illegible, rendering it almost useless.

Negativity - Overly critical comments offering no constructive insight can have a hugely negative impact on a student’s progression. Not only does this fail to offer anything beneficial in terms of progression it can also, particularly when there is no option of resubmission, result in a detrimental effect on the student’s self esteem.

Uncertainty - It is widely agreed that, ‘students can only achieve a learning goal if they understand that goal, assume some ownership of it, and can assess progress.’4 It is not uncommon for teachers and students to unintentionally have differing interpretations of the goals and criteria of an assignment. This lack of clarity results in confusion and misinterpretation that ultimately leaves the student penalised for possessing a different outlook on an assignment than the tutor.

1. T. Lillis and J. Turner, “Student writing in higher education: contemporary confusion, traditional concerns”, Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 6, no.1 (2001), 57-682. Dr Mark Huxham, “Fast and effective feedback: are model answers the answer?” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 32, no.6 (2007), 6023. J. Hartley and K. Chesworth, “Qualitative and quantitative methods in research on easy writing: no one way,” Journal of Further and Higher Education 24, (2000)4. Dr David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative Assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice,” available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/assessment/senlef/principles The Higher Education Academy, Accessed 13th October 2009

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The Ten Principles of Good Feedback PracticeThese ten principles of good feedback practice were developed through various focus groups, student and academic networks, NUS websites, sessions at NUS summer training and academic research and papers. It has explored in depth the opinions and experiences of current students around feedback mechanisms.

NUS believes that feedback…

1. Should be for learning, not just of learning

Feedback should be primarily used as a learning tool and therefore positioned for learning rather than as a measure of learning.

We believe that assessment feedback should be at the heart of the learning process. Feedback is often given at the end of an assignment to simply record a student’s achievement. This approach fails to utilise it as a learning tool and therefore does not provide any developmental advice which will allow a student to progress. The use of assessment for learning techniques or formative assessment, encourages this as it involves the completion of tasks whereby the assessment itself, and subsequent feedback is a learning tool.

Ideally feedback should only consist of constructive comments with marks or grades; particularly for any that counts towards a summative end of course assessment released after the comments have been acted upon. We have seen that an over reliance on marks and grades can impede learning as students may come to focus too much emphasis on ‘performance

goals’ rather than ‘learning goals’. Feedback where the grade replaces constructive comments has been shown to have a ‘negative effect on the self-esteem on low ability students.’5

2. Should be a continuous process

Rather than a one-off event after assessment, feedback should be part of continuous guided learning and an integral part of the learning experience.

Feedback should allow a student to reflect and develop their learning for the purpose of greater achievement. Therefore we believe that feedback needs to be an integral part of the learning experience not just a one-off exercise that assesses the student. Tutors should give ‘advice on how to improve the next element of the work, so that adjustments can be made in an ongoing manner.’6

Guided learning can foster greater understanding of topic areas. Assessment practices need to be designed to allow students to receive feedback on their progress which they can use to aid their progression. More often than not, simple mistakes, particularly concerning referencing, can be tackled if a student’s progression is under constant feedback.

3. Should be timely

Feedback should be provided in a timely manner, allowing students to apply it to future learning and assessments. This timeframe needs to be communicated to students.

A timely turnover in feedback is essential if a student is to fully understand the guidance offered and how they are able to apply this to future learning and assessments. If feedback is returned in an untimely fashion, particularly after submission dates of subsequent assignments, students

5. Dr David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative Assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice,” available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/assessment/senlef/principles The Higher Education Academy, Accessed 13th October 20096. Sally Brown, “Feedback and Feed-Forward,” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin, (2007)

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are prevented from fully developing and progressing in their learning.

While the differing nature of individual courses and programmes of study means no ideal length of time can be ascribed to all feedback, it should always be returned in a manner that will allow it to impact on future learning and future assessments. It is important that students are aware of how long to expect the turnaround to be so they have realistic expectations. If this is not done it might result in unnecessary disappointment and dissatisfaction. However, it is important that timeliness is not used as a blunt measure of performance. Its role is more subtle. If points 1 and 2 are fully implemented and feedback made an integral part of learning, then timeliness is a natural result.

4. Should relate to clear criteria

Objectives for assessment and grade criteria need to be clearly communicated to students and fully understood. Subsequent feedback should be provided primarily in relation to this.

Recent research on assessment feedback has indicated that it is common that tutors and students have differing impressions about what is expected from assessments and how a student can achieve a high mark. These differences can arise when standards are based or interpreted on tacit knowledge and assumptions; these often being difficult to articulate and communicate. Therefore it is crucial that these issues are overcome and there is a clear and common understanding between staff and students about the meanings behind the criteria.

Students can easily misinterpret what they are being told and, ‘if students do not share their tutor’s conception of assessment goals then the feedback information is unlikely to connect.’7 This needs to be achieved at the beginning of the course, ideally alongside exemplars of good and poor performance.

This gives students a greater understanding of how to approach an assignment and gives them the opportunity to speak to their peers or tutor if they have any confusion over the set objectives.

It is important that the subsequent feedback is provided primarily in relation to the agreed and fully understood criteria and no other. It also needs to be clearly communicated to the student what they did well against the assessment criteria and what they did less well. While common problems such as spelling or grammar can be mentioned in feedback it should not be to the exclusion of comments on the assessment criteria. This would impede a students learning on that particular topic.

There should also be lucid guidelines around issues such as plagiarism, ideally this would be addressed in the first year and special emphases given to ensuring international students were up to speed.

5. Should be constructive

If feedback is to be constructive it needs to be concise, focused and meaningful to feed-forward, highlighting what is going well and what can be improved.

Vague comments such as ‘could do better’, without explaining how they could actually do so, are not productive forms of feedback. Feedback needs to be concise, focused and meaningful if it is going to be constructive for students.

It is also important that comments are not overly negative. This can serve to damage motivation and self-esteem while doing little to help actual learning. If students come to fear what feedback they could receive it may prevent them from picking up their feedback and speaking directly to the tutor.

Feedback should be designed with a view to feed-forward, encouraging progress through constructive criticism. To do this the

7. Dr David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative Assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice,” available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/assessment/senlef/principles The Higher Education Academy. Accessed 13th Oct 2009.

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feedback should highlight both what went well in the work and prioritise what needs to be improved to do better next time.

6. Should be legible and clear

Feedback should be written in plain language so it can be easily understood by all students, enabling them to engage with it and support future learning.

Clear communication of feedback is essential to ensure that a student fully understands and is able to act on the guidance offered. Feedback is not just about communicating the message it is also about making sure the message has been received, understood and the student has a clear idea of how to apply this to further learning. Results from the NSS have shown that students do not feel that feedback has helped to clarify things that they did not understand.

We believe that universities need look at ways to clarify written feedback and also explore ways in which feedback can be communicated in other forms to aid the development of students.

When feedback is written, it should be done so in language that can be understood by all students. There should be little use of jargon or acronyms that some students may struggle to understand. This is of particular importance for students whose first language may not be English.

A common complaint of feedback is that hand-writing can often be illegible. Some students do misinterpret comments and suggestions and fail to understand potentially valuable points.

Institutions need to look at ways to make feedback clearer and in doing so need to explore reducing the emphasis on written feedback by embracing other methods.

7. Should be provided on exams

Exams make up a high proportion of assessment and students should receive feedback on how well they did and how they could improve for the next time.

Exams make up a high proportion of assessment in higher education and students invest a lot of time in their completion. As such they should receive feedback on how well they did and importantly, how they could improve for the next time.

Under the Freedom of information Act (2000) students have a right to access examiners comments on their scripts. For institutions to avoid being inundated with requests, they should follow the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) good practise and be ‘open, transparent and accountable’, giving students confidence that their examination processes are fair and consistent.8

8. Should include self-assessment and peer-to-peer feedback

Feedback from peers and self-assessment practices can play a powerful role in learning by encouraging reassessment of personal beliefs and interpretations.

Enabling students to assess their own learning or other students’ learning can be a powerful aid to development and should help foster mutual progression. When done correctly, feedback from peers and self-assessment practices can positively challenge students by encouraging them to reassess their knowledge and beliefs, therefore playing a powerful role in learning. This is already common practice on many arts based courses, but less so for other subject areas.

Students should be encouraged to engage more with each other to develop

8. Information source: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/individuals’_rights_of_access_to_examination_records.pdf Information Commissioners Offices, Accessed 08th October 2009

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mutual understanding and help collective progression. This type of feedback creates a dialogue, which means that the student not only receives the initial feedback information, but also has the opportunity to engage with a discussion about that feedback. It exposes students to alternative perspectives and ideas that they themselves may not have considered and allows them to discuss their interpretation of the learning objectives and look at how they approached the assignment compared to others.

Students need to be encouraged to take a greater role in shaping their own learning experience. “If you want to improve you need to be able to judge for yourself the quality of what you are doing.”9 Institutions need to facilitate self-assessment allowing students to reflect on their progression and to set realistic learning goals.

9. Should be accessible to all students

Not all students are full-time, campus based and so universities should utilise different technologies to ensure all students have easy access to their feedback.

The needs of all students should to be taken into account when devising feedback mechanisms. The make-up of students in higher education has changed drastically over the last decade. The proportion of students who are full time campus-based is decreasing, while there is a corresponding increase of those working full-time/studying part-time. There has also been a rise in students who have disabilities or are primary carers. Therefore the common requirement of students to physically pick up written feedback or visit a tutor within an allotted timeframe is not always realistic.

Indeed, research from the Higher Education Academy suggests that a high number of students are not collecting their feedback at all. To alleviate this situation more flexible mechanisms through which to disseminate feedback should be explored. This could be provision via email or through online discussions. It is essential that feedback practices serve the needs of all students, not just those whose needs are easily met within current common structures.

10. Should be flexible and suited to students’ needs

Students learn in different ways and therefore feedback is not ‘one size fits all’. Within reason students should be able to request feedback in various formats depending on their needs.

Different students learn in different ways and no feedback can be ‘one size fits all’. ‘All students are different but the assessment for every student tends to be the same.’10 One student might benefit more from receiving a written script while another would get most out of a peer review session. Within reason students should have the opportunity to receive feedback in ways that would be most productive to their learning. This would be optimum in an environment where there was positive and frequent peer to tutor dialogue.

9. Nick Brown, (2007) “Self-assessment – more effective than tutor feedback?” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin 10. Peter Goodhew, (2007) “Can we set a fair question?,” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin

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Feedback on Exams: mechanisms and good practiceIt is apparent that across many institutions, regardless of mission, league table position or research specialism that it has become general practice to treat feedback on exams differently to feedback on other forms of assessment. There appears to be a general consensus that providing feedback on this type of assessment method is not assumed as standard practice.

There are, of course, some institutions and some departments that do provide this and are beacons of good practice; however providing exam feedback is clearly not widespread. NUS firmly believes that the role of feedback as something that is not simply a measure of performance, but also a tool to aid future learning, is equally applicable to exam assessments as to any other type of assessment. As such, an institution’s failure to provide this to students is unacceptable.

The following provides some examples of what institutions can do to provide feedback on exams and case studies identifying good practice. We hope this will give you some ideas, inspiration and guidance on how you might address the issue in your own establishment.

What does exam feedback look like?

All too often exam feedback falls short of students’ needs and expectations and only provides students with a numeric grade or mark. This is a missed opportunity to aid the learning of students and improve future work.

Exam feedback can be delivered through numerous mechanisms, and it is important that the characteristics of individual courses and departments are taken

into consideration when choosing which method is most appropriate. Therefore it is necessary to allow a degree of flexibility and consider what works best for different schools or departments.

Feedback mechanisms you could suggest to your institution for consideration include:

Model answers: the provision of model answers can be useful as they allow students to understand marking schemes.

Generic feedback to all students: this could take the form of lecturers providing written or verbal account of common mistakes in exams and what can be done to rectify this. This is obviously not a substitute for individual feedback but can be a positive compliment to additional feedback mechanisms.

Optional seminars to discuss recent exams: this can be an efficient way for lecturers to provide verbal feedback and enable students to ask questions and discuss solutions with their peers.

Individual one to one feedback on request: while this is often criticised for being an unrealistic demand on lecturers time, it is anticipated that if other forms of feedback are provided in effective ways that not all students will opt for one to one feedback meaning there are less time demands on tutors.

The provision of exam scripts with comment sheets: this personalised feedback allows students to reflect on their answers and consider what they did well and not so well.

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Assessment Feedback FormNUS understands that there is no one size fits all answer to the assessment feedback conundrum. As we all know, students learn in many different ways. Some prefer to listen and learn in a lecture, while others prefer more practical, hands on approach. Similarly different subject disciplines require a different approach to teaching and learning. In order for students to receive the most practical feedback on their assignments, forms of feedback should be tailored to the learning style of the course and student.

What is the feedback form?

The feedback form has been designed to prompt lecturers on some of the key NUS feedback principles, while giving them a space to give constructive feedback on the work. It also gives students the opportunity to ask what form they would prefer their feedback in.

How should you use it?

On the most basic level, you can ask students to attach it to their assignments during the deadline period. Feel free to photocopy a version from this toolkit, or alternatively it can be downloaded from NUS Connect, just go to the resources section and type in feedback form.

Get your course reps, clubs and societies and even institution staff to help distribute the form and explain to students why it is important.

You could also recommend that the elements of the form are integrated into your institutions own assignment cover sheet. Not only will lecturers be prompted on the NUS principles but your institution can use the data collected from it to feedback to create opportunities to deliver more practical and relevant feedback to their students. Get in touch with your institutions centre for learning and teaching or someone in your institution responsible for academic development and

see whether they would be willing to adopt this feedback form institution wide.

Some other things to think about…

Last year the NUS Student Experience Survey uncovered that 72% of students would like their lecture’s to give them some form of verbal feedback, compared to 25% of student who said they received this type of feedback. Verbal feedback can come in many different forms, from personal one to one meetings with your lecturers to whole group tutorials which could involve peer feedback and an explanation of the marking criteria. Verbal feedback could also be formed using new technologies such as podcasts, online chat programmes and video capture software. These new technologies provide a more flexible approach and enable students to access their feedback at a time which suits them.

Using a more flexible approach to assessment feedback will also benefit specific groups of students such as mature and part time students, who due to other commitments such as jobs and caring responsibilities often find it hard to collect their feedback in person from campus. Having feedback remotely accessible, whether it be via an email or downloaded from a virtual learning environment will give students access to their feedback without the need for them to plan a journey onto campus.

One of the arguments you may come up against is that lecturers do not have the time to cater for every person’s need in the class. The purpose of this feedback form is not necessarily that the marker would meet the needs of every student, but to gather the general consensus of the group to ensure that the best type of feedback is provided for that subject and for lectures to be aware of the things students would like feedback on.

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Student Feedback CoversheetStudents often cite that the feedback that they receive from their lecturers is unhelpful due to a number of factors which have been previously mentioned in this briefing. One of the main criticisms by students is that feedback frequently does not involve communication between the student and the marker. This can lead to all sorts of problems including the marker not giving feedback which is useful to the student or giving students feedback which the student does not understand. This is especially true of written feedback.

Woolf (2004)11 argues that written criteria only makes sense in context, and this is a key limitation to written feedback. Students often misunderstand the feedback given to them because of a lack of understanding of expectations. Lectures will have an in-depth knowledge of the marking criteria and expectations of students’ assignments, but this may not be the case for the students themselves. This lack of understanding is often a barrier for students as they find it hard to apply the feedback given to their future work.

A dialogue approach is often the best way to give feedback to students, in order for both the tutor and student to understand each others position. But this approach is often time consuming. The Equality Challenge Unit report12 on black and ethnic minority attainment found that many BME students wanted a dialogue with their tutors in order to understand what tutors are looking for. The report recommends that institutions should consider ‘ways in which to strengthen conversations with students about study expectations, standards, performance criteria, assessment and feedback (p29). This would also be helpful to other types of students including

students from outside the UK who may not understand the expectations and regulations of UK assessments. (Caruana and Spurling, 2007)13

Initiating this dialogue whilst, ensuring that this does not add additional workload for staff is quite an undertaking. Group tutorials could aid this somewhat, but this does not make the feedback personalised to every student. Similarly most forms of dialogue will break the anonymity of the student.

Sue Bloxham and Liz Campbell for the University of Cumbria have been researching the use of student coversheets as a form of feedback dialogue. By asking students to state what they would like to receive feedback on, has meant not only that they were able to receive feedback meaningful to them but were able to communicate this without confronting a tutor and consequently preserving their anonymity. Using a feedback coversheet is beneficial for both staff and students; Students are able to comment on the work without feeling embarrassed or intimidated whilst staff are able to give constructive feedback which students will be able to apply to future learning without exerting any more time.

This practice has been spreading throughout the HE community, and students all around the country are saying positive things about this form of communication. Many staff are also commenting positively about this approach and have mainly been looking at the student comments after reading the assignment, so as not to influence their own judgement.

Based on Bloxham and Campbell’s model, NUS has produced its own version of a student feedback sheet which unions could use to enhance their feedback campaign. Just like the assessment feedback form

11. Woolf, H. (2004) ‘Assessment criteria: reflections on current practices’, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29 (4), pp.479-493.12. Equality Challenge Unit. (2008) Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment. York: Higher Education Academy13. Caruana, V. & Spurling, N. (2007) The internationalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of selected material. York: Higher Education Academy

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for staff, there are many ways which you can distribute the student feedback sheet including:

Handing them out where your students hand their work in.

Give the forms to your student/course reps to hand out or email to students.

Put the form up on your website for your students to download, and ask your institution to do this also.

Upload the form onto your institution’s virtual learning environment.

If your institution is on board, get lecturers to help distribute or promote it.

Whatever you decide is the best ways to distribute it, make sure that students understand how this sheet can help them get better feedback.

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Student Feedback Coversheet

This coversheet has been designed to give you the opportunity to suggest the feedback you would like to receive on this assignment, as well as helping you to positively reflect on this piece of work. If the marker understands your perspective on your work, then he/she is able to give you more precise and detailed feedback which will be meaningful to you. This should help you to improve in your future assignments.

Don’t be afraid to be honest on this sheet, the more honest you are, the more helpful the feedback will be.

Student ID:

Module title:

Due Date: Word Count:

To be marked by:

Assignment name:

I feel the strengths of this assignment are…

I feel its weaknesses are…

I would most like more help with/feedback on…

After looking at the marking criteria I feel this assignment deserves…………% because…

Ideally I would like my feedback (please number in order of preference):

Handwritten Typed Verbally Pod/vodcast Electronically sent

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Credaf mai cryfderau’r aseiniad hwn yw…

Credaf mai ei wendidau yw…

Hoffwn gael cymorth gyda / adborth ar…

Ar ôl edrych ar y meini prawf ar gyfer marcio, teimlaf fod yw aseiniad hwn yn haeddu …..% oherwydd…

Yn ddelfrydol hoffwn gael fy adborth (rhifwch hwy yn y drefn y dymunwch)

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