Feedback to the Future Sue Gill, QuILT and Rachael Thornton, NUSU

Background Sector wide concerns about assessment and feedback – NSS not the only driver – Staff concerns too Our plan – Building on previous joint campaign – Run a campaign to raise student awareness of the feedback they were already getting; how to make use of that feedback; and, to start new students thinking about assessment and feedback at university is different from school

What we did Week November 6 venues, Herschel, Union, Courtyard, Med School, Library and Business School 7 student helpers + 3 NUSU officers and SG 467 response postcards completed Talked to an estimated 700+ students

On the day Asked students to complete a very brief postcard asking them 3 questions What was the most useful feedback you ever received from a teacher or lecturer? Why was this feedback so useful? What did you do with it? Asked for their School/subject If they wanted they could also leave the name of the lecturer whod given them the feedback

Results Had a JobsOC student who transcribed the cards Analysed by SG It is anecdotal information Students interpreted the questions in a variety of ways, though the vast majority did talk about feedback on assessment Very few rude responses

What was the most useful feedback you ever received from a teacher or lecturer? Motivational/folk sayings (20) To never give up on what I am doing and strive for success If you act like an idiot you'll get treated like one It won't get done till you actually do it! Put the effort in and you will get what you want

Time management (9) Not to rush work, do it properly not quickly Time is the problem not content Attendance(5) Come to all lectures must always attend optional tutorials What was done well (5) Tackled through a complicated question in seminar, shook my hand because I got it so right Confidence boost Small parts of lectures spark ideas/inspires I have lots of distraction

Coursework feedback (114) Range of ways of it being delivered and notes on work feedback in small tutor groups written feedback face to face over an essay calculation class lab work working through question in lecture revision lecture a combination of face to face and detailed annotation on my work feedback from presentations in seminars marks on written pieces of work

Exam Feedback (23) post exam feedback session given guidance on exam technique after the exam exam question and answers past papers told me where I went wrong detailed and identified weak areas Helped to know about how well people do on exams I know what to work on

Specific advice (133) highlighting areas for correction/improvement recommended reading, journals, books explanation of the aims of the assessment how I could have done better subject specific skills references structure of piece analysis writing style study skills Way I was presenting back a history was too muddled and needed restructuring in a particular way

Cautions The language students use is not quite the same as staff use – tests, exams, coursework, assignment, essay – we cant assume we mean exactly the same For example, is a Blackboard test a summative exam or an individual module formative assessment or something else? Without a shared vocabulary are other aspects of assessment and feedback also misunderstood? The questions we asked meant we probably haven't heard anything here about formative assessment

Whats not most useful? Only one student felt their mark was the most useful feedback they got No students said they were told the right answer as their most useful feedback No responses talked about self or peer feedback being useful

Assessment literacy The majority of respondents mentioned aspects of assessment literacy as being the most useful feedback they had received Aims of the assignment Learnt about referencing Makes you think and form an argument To improve writing skills I understood what is required

Why was it useful?

What did you do with it?

What did we learn and what next? Initial plan was to run a what one thing would you change about assessment feedback at the same time – this was a bad idea! Will now run this April It is hard, exhausting work persuading students to give us 2 minutes of their time, however the cheerfulness and enthusiasm of the our student team overcame all but the most grumpy student! Providing a highlighter pen as a thank you was effective

What did we learn and what next? We produced a document about the differences between school and university assessment – we now need to make this more widely available for new students t/AssessmentandFeedbackatUniversity.htm t/AssessmentandFeedbackatUniversity.htm Also have short document about why reference? – copies available or can be found here riting.htm riting.htm

What does this mean for us? What can we do to increase students assessment literacy? QuILT can host resources and promote them We can author resources if we know what would be useful The best time to get students is in the first semester of their first year, how can we do this effectively?

Thank you Rachael Thornton Sue Gill