1. Feedback, efficiency and learning pay-off: new designs for formative assessment
Professor David Nicol,
Deputy-Director,
Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement (CAPLE)
Director, REAP project (
University of Strathclyde
Queens University Belfast, 15th February 2008

2. Plan Describe background Introduce research
Case studies of practice from REAP
Discussion
Thinking about your practice
Developments and Guidelines
Sources of information and advice

3. Background
Projects
Student Enhanced Learning through Effective Feedback (SENLEF) project funded by HE Academy
Literature review: model of formative assessment and feedback: 7 principles in relation to development of learner self-regulation
The Reengineering Assessment Practices (REAP) project funded by SFC £1m)
QAA Scotland – first year experience and formative assessment

4. Re-engineering Assessment Practices project
3 HEIs (Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian Business School, Glasgow University)
Large 1st year classes ( students)
A range of disciplines (19 modules ~6000 students)
Many technologies: online tests, simulations, discussion boards, e-portfolios, e-voting, peer/feedback software, VLE, online-offline
Goals: learning quality and teaching efficiencies
Outputs: case studies, advice for strategic change
Assessment for learner self-regulation

5. Why take assessment and feedback seriously?
A key driver of student learning
Major cost in higher education
Widely reported that students don’t read feedback provided
Drop-out and retention linked to academic experience
QAA reports – main area of criticism in England

6. Nationally only 55% of students think feedback is prompt and had helped to clarify things they did not understand [Scotland: 48%]
Nationally only 63% of students agree that have received detailed comments on their work [Scotland: 49%]

7. A key research paper
Black and Wiliam (1998) 250 studies
Real classroom situations – tutor, peer and self-assessment and feedback
Positive benefits for learning and achievement across all content areas/skills and sectors
…. the lowest effect size would move a student from the average into the top third in a class test…
Big impact in schools but what about HE?

8. First Year: The academic experience
What is important?
Coping with transition
Understanding what is required
Engagement with academic programmes
Support and feedback
Experiences of success
Agents in own learning
Belief in self (ability) and motivation
Social dynamics of learning (belonging)
Based on research by Yorke (UK) and Tinto (US)

9. Background (1)
Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports students learning, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 3-31.
See:
Formative Assessment in Science Teaching (FAST) project at:

10. Gibbs and Simpson (2004) Assessment tasks [Conditions 1-4]
Capture enough study time (in and out of class)
Are spread out evenly across timeline of study
Lead to productive activity (deep vs surface)
Communicate clear and high expectations
i.e concern here is with ‘steers’ about how much work to do

11. Background (1) Literature Review
Nicol, D. & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 34 (1),
Nicol, D & Milligan, C. (2006), Rethinking technology-supported assessment practices in relation to the seven principles of good feedback practice. In C. Bryan & K. Clegg, Innovative assessment in higher education, Routledge.
Background
Student Enhanced Learning through Effective Feedback [SENLEF] project funded by HE Academy
REAP project:

12. Current thinking
Students are always engaged in self-assessment/self-regulation of their own learning (Winne, 2005: Black & Wiliam, 2005). Logically entailed by constructivist thinking
The act of using teacher feedback implies that self-assessment must be present
Feedback in HE is being reduced so how are students still learning
The question is: how can we scaffold students’ learning so they become better at self-regulation (Lajoie, 2005)

13. Ideas in Practice
Consider self and peers as much as the teacher as sources of Assessment and Feedback
Tap into different qualities than teacher can provide
Saves time
Provides considerable learning benefits (LLL)
Don’t focus just on written feedback but every step of the cycle:
Understanding the task criteria (Sadler, 1983)
Applying what was learned in action

14. Scaffolding self regulation: 7 principles of good feedback (assessment design)
Clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards).
Facilitate the development of reflection and self-assessment in learning
Deliver high quality feedback to students: that enables them to self-correct
Encourage peer and student-teacher and peer dialogue around learning
Encourage positive motivational beliefs & self esteem through assessment
Provide opportunities to act on feedback
Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching
Source: Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006)

15. Two super principles
Super-principle 1: time on task and effort (engagement) i.e. steers on how much work to do and when – Gibbs and Simpson 4 conditions
Super-principle 2: developing learner self-regulation (empowerment/self-regulation) i.e steers to encourage ownership of learning – the seven principles discussed above.
Case examples from REAP – applying these conditions/ principles

16. REAP: Example 1: Mechanical Engineering (personal response systems)

17. Passive learning in classroom due to larger numbers
Problems identified
Conceptual misunderstandings even after graduation (e.g. concept of force)
Passive learning in classroom due to larger numbers
Evidence of low levels of student motivation –attendance
Difficult to develop a sense of community amongst learners
Retention issues (20%)
Conceptual misunderstandings

18. Course Redesign
Looked worldwide for the best solution
Focus on teaching core concepts
Carefully constructed student workgroups
Introduced personal response systems in lecture sessions (to facilitate peer discussion) as promoted by Mazur at Harvard
Later linked this to online testing
And to online homework system

19. Personal Response System (PRS)
PRS was developed by Professor Nelson Cue at Hong Kong University of Technology and has now been adopted by hundreds of educators worldwide

20. Benefits
PRS promotes reflection on and peer discussion of reasoning behind difficult concepts
Self, peer and tutor feedback in a single classroom session
Improved understanding in standardised engineering tests (e.g. force concept inventory)
Culture of collaborative learning established
Students report enhanced satisfaction (fun!) compared to traditional lecture classes.
High levels of ‘time on task’ in class
Dropout reduced from 20% to 3%

21. Some results
Survey Statement
Students agree
Students disagree
Using the PRS helps me to develop a better understanding of the subject matter compared to traditional lectures
74% 4%
Using the PRS helps me to understand the concepts behind the problems
75% 6%
I am more actively involved during PRS classes than in traditional lectures
95% 1%
I have to think more in PRS classes than in traditional lecture classes
91% 0%
I study less outside of PRS classes than for traditional classes
24%
I remember less after a PRS class than after other classes
12%
63%

22. The student experience
Some student comments:
“…in this class everybody’s involved, you have to think about what’s being said…”
“…you are learning from people around you… it’s a language you can understand…”
“…you feel you are keeping pace with the class and that everyone is learning together…”

23. Relation to Gibbs & Simpson’s four assessment conditions
Web-based assessment tasks (MCQs and problem solving exercises) keep students engaged in out-of-class activities and EVS encourages engagement in class (condition 1)
Activities are distributed across topics and weeks (condition 2)
EVS tasks are designed to deepen learning as conceptual understanding increases (condition 3)
EVS activities clearly communicate requirements and there is a progressive increase in challenge (communicates clear and high expectations, condition 4)

24. Relationship to seven principles
Learning goals clarified through iterative cycles of tutor presentation, tests and retests using MCQs in class (Principle 1)
Reflection/self-assessment triggered through bar-chart presentation and by online tests (Principle 2)
Teachers provide feedback at end of EVS concept-test sequence (Principle 3)
Both teacher-student and peer dialogue occur in EVS interactive sessions (Principle 4)
The focus on learning goals rather than performance goals in class and the staged difficulty of concept tests encourage motivational (Principle 5)
The continuous cycle of tests, retests and feedback ensures that students can use the feedback immediately (Principle 6)
Online MCQ tests and student performance in EVS lectures provide a range of feedback information that tutors can use adjust teaching to student needs (Principle 7)

25. Other uses of PRS Diagnostic testing at beginning of year
Community building – induction activities and sharing data about student cohort
Revision of lecture materials in class
Formal examinations using multiple choice questions
Evaluation data – reactions to course
Experiments where human responses being tested (voting in politics, visual illusions, questionnaires)
Been used across a range of disciplines worldwide
See resources section of website and D. Banks ‘Audience Response Systems in Higher Education: Applications and Cases’, Information  Science Publishing, Hershey 2006

26. Psychology
560 first year students
Mixture of psychology majors (130) and those taking psychology only for one year (430)
6 topic areas, 48 lectures, 4 tutorials, 12 practicals
Assessment; 2 x MCQs (25%), tutorial attendance (4%), taking part in experiment (5%), essay exam (66%)

27. Problems identified
No practice in writing skills but required in the exam
More detail provided in lectures than mentioned in exams (not enough independent reading)
No feedback except on MCQs (percent correct)
Didn’t want to increase staff workload
Wanted to improve overall exam marks
And standard of entrant to second year

28. Discussion point
What would you do to improve the student experience in first year psychology?
You can use any technology (or combination of technologies) but you must consider costs and staff time constraints…

29. Psychology Redesign
Discussion board in WebCT
Students in 85 discussion groups of 7-8, same groups throughout year
Series of online tasks
Lecture on Monday, Friday lecture abolished
Students to discover for themselves in collaboration with their group what would have been the topic of the Friday lecture

30. Structure of group tasks
6 cycles of 3 weeks (one cycle x major course topic)
First week: ‘light’ written task (e.g. define terms) = 7 short answers (all answer)
Second week = guided reading
Week three: ‘heavy’ written task: students answer guided questions and then collaborate in writing a word essay.
Within each week:
The Monday lecture – introducing material
Immediately after lecture, task posted online – for delivery the following Monday
Model answers (selected from students) posted for previous week’s task

31. The teaching role
Participation in the discussions was compulsory but not marked (this year there is 2% mark for participation)
The course leader provided general feedback to the whole class – often motivational
He encouraged students to give each other feedback
And he selected the model answers
The group discussions were not moderated
Around 8 teaching assistants monitored the discussions and reported non-participation to the teacher

32. Online Project 1 – Classical Conditioning Phenomena.
Online Project 1 – Classical Conditioning Phenomena.
 Each Group Member should read the Passer chapter from the beginning to at least as far the section which begins ‘Applications of Classical Conditioning’. Satisfy yourself that you can answer EACH of the questions below. Then agree as a group who will answer what.
 Project 1 is to answer these questions as fully as you can:
1) What type of response is susceptible to Classical Conditioning?
2) Why does Extinction occur?
3) What is Spontaneous Recovery?
4) What does the phenomenon of Spontaneous Recovery tell us about
the nature of Extinction in Classical Conditioning?
5) What is Generalisation?
6) What is Discrimination?
7) What is Higher Order Conditioning?

33. Project 9: An example of ‘heavy’ task
The Task – 800 word essay:
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Freud’s and Eysenck’s theories of personality. Are the theories incompatible?
readings suggested
questions provided – all should try
and advice on how to divide task given

34. Benefits
Written responses of an exceedingly high standard (sometimes surpassing 3rd year)
Spontaneous online discussions about learning and leaner responsibility
High levels of motivation, atmosphere in class improved
Some students burdened by workload – easily detected
Some requested to move groups (5 groups)
Online interactions showed powerful ‘scaffolding’
Interaction and feedback possible with 560 students
Easy for tutors to monitor participation
Peer feedback and self feedback (model answers) harnessed
Improved mean exam performance (up from 51-57%)

35. Has it worked?

39. Online postings/interaction
24,362 messages posted by groups
Average number of postings per student 44.3
Most messages posted by single student 324
1067 postings to general open discussion forum
Accumulated time students spent in psychology site was 1 year 37days 11 hours 56 mins
Students set up online study groups for other subjects
Structured tasks online triggered important social-cognitive processes

40. Relation to the Gibbs & Simpson’s four assessment conditions
Tasks require significant study out of class (capture sufficient study time, condition 1)
They are distributed across topics and weeks (are spread out evenly, condition 2)
They move students progressively to deeper levels of understanding (productive/ deep learning, condition 3)
There are explicit goals and progressive increase in challenge (communicates clear and high expectations, condition 4)

41. Relation to 7 feedback principles
Standard format and model answers provide progressive clarification of expectations (clear goals, principle 1)
Students encouraged to self-assess against model answer (self-assessment, principle 2)
Course leader provides motivational and meta-level feedback and selects model answers (teacher feedback, principle 3)
Online peer discussion aimed at reaching consensus about response (dialogue, principle 4)
Staged complexity, focus on learning not just marks, use of students model answers (motivation, principle 5)
Repeated cycle of topics and tasks (closing gap, principle 6)
VLE captures all interactions allowing course leader to monitor progress and adapt teaching (shaping teaching, principle 7)

42. What can we learn from these case studies?
Use of simple technologies (PRS, quiz/survey tool, discussion board)
Considerable thought gone into the learning design [which is transferable]
The drivers were learning improvements rather than technology (context of use)
Key finding across studies was need to balance structure and learner control
Also important is the way that the social and the academic processes are shown to be mutually supportive

43. Discussion point Consider your own classes/modules/programmes:
Identify one or two ideas that you might use from today’s presentation in the redesign of your teaching.
Identify any questions raised in your discussion groups
Plenary report back:
Be prepared to share an idea with others in the plenary and/or
A ‘question worth asking’ that might illuminate some important issue

44. QAA Scotland Project: Assessment and the First Year Experience
Use assessment and feedback as lever for transformation of the student experience
Develop in students the ability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning (engagement-empowerment)
Foster learning groups and communities in the first year and beyond (academic-social integration)

45. The Concepts
Balancing engagement (time & effort on task) and empowerment (opportunities to take control and manage own learning)
Academic and social integration into the university: use the academic to support the social and vice versa

46. EMPOWERMENT/
SELF-REGULATION
ACADEMIC
EXPERIENCE
SOCIAL
EXPERIENCE
ENGAGEMENT
Figure 1: Assessment and feedback practices: dimensions of implementation

47. Good formative assessment and feedback practices should:
Help clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards)
Encourage ‘time an effort’ on challenging learning tasks
Deliver high quality feedback information that helps learners self-correct
Provide opportunities to act on feedback
Ensure that summative assessment supports formative learning processes
Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer, teacher-student)
Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning
Give choice in the topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing of assessments.
Involve students in decision-making about assessment policy and practice
Support the development of learning groups and communities
Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching

48. Guidelines for Implementation (1)
Implement the principles
A single principle or many
Active involvement of students
Tight-loose – maintain fidelity to the principles (tight) but encourage disciplines develop their own techniques of implementation (loose)
Interest in FA
Summative A can undermine the value of fa e.g.

49. Students create criteria Students add own criteria
EMPOWERMENT/
SELF-REGULATION
Students create criteria
Students add own criteria
Students identify criteria from samples of work
Exemplars of different performance levels provided
Students rephrase criteria in own words
Provide document with criteria
ACADEMIC
EXPERIENCE
SOCIAL
EXPERIENCE
ENGAGEMENT
Figure 2: Assessment and feedback practices: dimensions of implementation

50. + 2. Encourage time & effort on challenging learning tasks
EMPOWERMENT/
SELF-REGULATION
ACADEMIC
EXPERIENCE
SOCIAL
EXPERIENCE
2. Encourage time & effort on challenging learning tasks
6.Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student) +
ENGAGEMENT

51. + Students create MCQs and feedback for wrong and right answers
EMPOWERMENT/
SELF-REGULATION
Students create MCQs and feedback for wrong and right answers
6.Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student)
Students self-assess using MCQ and provide confidence ratings
ACADEMIC
EXPERIENCE +
SOCIAL
EXPERIENCE
Students self-assess own performance using MCQs
ENGAGEMENT

52. Guidelines for Implementation (2)
Determine where ICT can add value
Clarify students’ responsibilities
Align responses to National Student Survey to the assessment principles
Alternate solo and group work
Evaluate change (PIs)
Consider programme coherence
Use principles as quality enhancement tool
Share your learning and designs
Quality enhancement
Interest in FA
Summative A can undermine the value of fa e.g.

53. Transforming Assessment A ‘blueprint’ for change in the first year
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Recommendations: how to implement at module, course and institutional level
A literature review: how assessment and feedback can support empowerment and integration
12 principles of assessment and feedback practice (+ questions to enhance quality)
100+ examples and case studies illustrating implementation across the disciplines
(see also

54. Some publications
Nicol, D (2008), Transforming assessment and feedback: Enhancing integration and empowerment in the first year, to be published by Quality Assurance Agency, Scotland (June)
Nicol, D (in press), Assessment for learner self-regulation: Enhancing achievement in the first year using learning technologies, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education,
Nicol, D (2007), Laying the foundation for lifelong learning: cases studies of technology supported assessment processes in large first year classes, British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(4),
Nicol, D (2007) E-assessment by design: using multiple-choice tests to good effect, Journal of Further and Higher Education.31(1),
Nicol, D. & Milligan, C. (2006), Rethinking technology-supported assessment in relation to the seven principles of good feedback practice. In C. Bryan and K. Clegg, Innovations in Assessment, Routledge.
Nicol, D, J. & Macfarlane-Dick (2006), Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice, Studies in Higher Education, 31(2),
Boyle, J.T. and Nicol, D.J. (2003) Using classroom communication systems to support interaction and discussion in large class settings, Association for Learning Technology Journal, 11(3), 43-57
Nicol, D.J. and Boyle, J.T. (2003), Peer interaction and class-wide discussion: a comparison of two interaction methods in the wired classroom, Studies in Higher Education, 28(4),
See also