1. Making Feedback a positive learning experience Joint Academy/NUS Special Interest Group Professor Brenda Smith Senior Associate Brenda.Smith@heacademy.ac.uk Joint Academy/NUS Special Interest Group Professor Brenda Smith Senior Associate Brenda.Smith@heacademy.ac.uk

2. Aims to... Emphasis assessment for learning rather than of learning Encourage the active engagement of students in the whole process of assessment and feedback Value the importance of getting to know your students

3. Issues with assessment? Students are often not given the Big Picture - students want an e-bay experience Too much summative and not enough formative Students are not actively involved in the whole process Insufficient feedback that comes too late Myths and traditions that inhibit change Variations in practice The whole assessment process needs clear and effective leadership and management

4. What students would like

5. Assessment methods can affect the type and usefulness of the feedback given

10. University of Hertfordshire

13. Conditions for innovation & enhancement Effective leadership of learning, teaching & assessment Departments that value teaching Workloads that are not too high Perceived recognition & rewards for staff Developments that are implemented in a student focused way A culture that listens to students and values their feedback Tutors that get to know their students personally

14. Students want more feedback. The also want more verbal and face-to-face feedback. What can we stop doing to enable this to happen? Why did I get 37% ?

15. Questions.....? Is written feedback always typed? Do staff encourage the use of self and peer feedback? Is feedback given in different ways e.g. MP3, Audacity etc Are students actively encouraged to use feedback?

16. Evaluation of Tutor feedback omission Use of English Ask for clarification Error Give clarification Praise Encouragement Feed forward -ive 30% 20% 17% 11.5% 10.5% 3.1% 1.5% 0% 0% OU/SHU Improving the Effectiveness of Formative Assessment in Science

17. Students comments They are not very specific when they mark. I got some good evaluation, what does that mean? You put so much effort into this work that you really want feedback and to know they have read it properly. If you just get a mark you think, Ive worked for days and thats it? I think it would be helpful as well if when we had our feedback we could relate it to the assessment criteria

20. Get students confident with assessing Give students in groups a selection of essays - Excellent, Good, Average & Fail Students decide individually which essay fits into which category and then compares notes in small groups Then get students to tease out the differences & express these differences as criteria Students then provide feedback on each piece of work in their groups Students then provide guidelines for effective essay writing What has each student/group learned?

21. Get students actively involved In small groups get students to exchange an assessed piece of their work and compare the feedback comments with group members Do they understand the comments? How would they respond to the comments? What would they do differently next time if: a) They re-did the same assignment b) Applied the learning to a new and different piece of work?

22. Quick ways of giving feedback Generic feedback within 24 hours on the VLE Face-to-face feedback with the whole group or small groups Peer feedback in groups Use technology - Audacity, Dragon, Statement Banks Self-feedback - help students develop the skills of self reflection

23. Understanding...? This report is not logically structured This essay is not sufficiently analytical We need to develop the skills of self- assessment & encourage students to be active in this process

24. Involve the students StudentStaff These are areas of my work which I think are good Please comment on the following areas What I want to improve or do differently next time The mark I think it deserves is

25. REf. Race, P (2007), Adapted from How to Get a Good Degree: 2 nd edition, London: Open University Press

28. Dialogue Starters... How did this essay make you think differently? Which of your references gave you the best information? Which part of the assignment do you feel less confident about? What was the most challenging part of this assignment? Jot down 2 things you have learnt doing this assignment that you did not expect to learn? What advice would you give to students doing this assignment? If you were to do this assignment again, what one change would you make?

29. Any Questions? Professor Brenda Smith Senior Associate, Higher Education Academy Brenda.Smith@heacademy.ac.uk