Perceptions of quality in staff-student written feedback in higher education: a case study

This paper reports on the results of an embedded, multiple case study that investigated the views of both lecturers and students on written staff-student feedback in three postgraduate programmes at one UK university. The study sought to uncover how ‘quality written feedback’ is perceived in the higher education environment under investigation. It found that tutors and students were broadly aligned in the features that they identified as constituting quality, which could be categorised within three dimensions: the affective or interpersonal, the orientational and the transformational. The findings suggest that feedback needs to incorporate each of these dimensions if it is to be perceived as being of good quality.     

Investigating expectations and experiences of audio and written assignment feedback in first-year undergraduate students

Previous research suggests that audio feedback may be an important mechanism for facilitating effective and timely assignment feedback. The present study examined expectations and experiences of audio and written feedback provided through turnitin for iPad^® from students within the same cohort and assignment. The results showed that although initially sceptical of audio compared to written feedback, there were no significant differences in students' experiences of audio and written feedback. Students' performance on the assignment was not associated with their experiences of audio feedback but first-class performing students (?>?70%) had more positive experiences of written feedback than those who received an upper second-class grade (60–69%). In general, the results imply that audio feedback provided through turnitin for iPad^® is a viable alternative to written feedback. The findings are discussed in relation to past research findings.     

Self-regulation of learning and preference for written versus audio-recorded feedback by distance education students

Teacher feedback is critically related to student learning. This study sought to determine the relationships between distance education (DE) student level of self-regulated learning (SRL) and their preference for audio-recorded vs. written feedback from tutors. DE students (n = 102) enrolled in a first-year university course completed an online questionnaire that assessed eight dimensions of SRL as well as a personal evaluation of written vs. audio-recorded tutor feedback that was provided during the academic study period. In general, the participating DE students expressed preference for written over audio-recorded feedback. However, complex patterns of relationships emerged between dimensions of SRL and evaluation of written vs. audio-recorded feedback. For example, DE students who were most likely to listen to audio-recorded feedback appreciated peer interaction and personal challenges more than students who preferred written feedback. In DE learning environments, a variety of feedback formats may best meet the needs of all students, although exposure to various technologies may facilitate SRL.     

高等教育质量内部管理与外部监控的关系分析

如何保证与提高高等教育质量是当前高教界乃至全社会关注的焦点问题。保证高等教育质量,需要构建一个包括高校内部管理与社会外部监控在内的质量保证体系,并处理好两者之间的关系。从发生学的角度来看,高等教育质量保证有一个由内部管理开始到外部监控介入的发展过程。在现代高等教育质量保证体系内,确立高校内部的质量管理制度并发挥高校内部管理在保证与提高质量方面的主要作用应是最为基本的。外部监控的功能则在于评估高校内部管理制度的构成及运行状况,促使其在保证与提高高等教育质量方面正常发挥作用。     

Validating written feedback in clinical formative assessment

Abstract

Formative assessment is widely accepted as being crucial to promoting student learning and, since 2010, the UK General Medical Council has mandated its use in workplace-based clinical training for all new doctors. As a result, the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) instituted a range of formative workplace-based assessments including the Radiology Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (Rad-DOPS), in which supervisors appraise trainees’ performance in carrying out clinical procedures. This paper reports on the quality of the written feedback in 2,500?Rad-DOPS online feedback forms in addressing the aims of the new assessment approach. Random samples of 500 were selected from the first three years of the new assessment implementation, 2010–13, and from 2016 to 17. Using an appropriate coding frame, the feedback was analysed across the samples against key trainee attributes including stage of training and level of adjudged competence. Criteria for identifying high quality feedback were derived from the literature and a simplified form of qualitative comparative analysis was used to identify the conditions associated with high quality feedback. An average of 97% of the assessments contained written feedback but the number of instances of high quality feedback was found to be exceedingly small at around 5%. The paper offers suggestions for making the feedback process more purposeful in achieving the aims of formative assessment.     

高教全面质量管理刍议

把全面质量管理这一科学管理方法移植到高教质量管理中来,论述了高教质量的全面含义,阐述了高教全面质量管理的内容特征和基本原则,设计了高教全面质量管理的评估指标体系框架。     

Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective

Peer review is a reciprocal process whereby students produce feedback reviews on the work of peers and receive feedback reviews from peers on their own work. Prior research has primarily examined the learning benefits that result from the receipt of feedback reviews, with few studies specifically exploring the merits of producing feedback reviews or the learning mechanisms that this activates. Using accounts of their experiences of peer review, this study illuminates students’ perceptions of the different learning benefits resulting from feedback receipt and feedback production, and, importantly, it provides insight into the cognitive processes that are activated when students construct feedback reviews. The findings show that producing feedback reviews engages students in multiple acts of evaluative judgement, both about the work of peers, and, through a reflective process, about their own work; that it involves them in both invoking and applying criteria to explain those judgements; and that it shifts control of feedback processes into students’ hands, a shift that can reduce their need for external feedback. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. It is argued that the capacity to produce quality feedback is a fundamental graduate skill, and, as such, it should receive much greater attention in higher education curricula.     

The anonymous reviewer: the relationship between perceived expertise and the perceptions of peer feedback in higher education

Peer feedback often has positive effects on student learning processes and outcomes. However, students may not always be honest when giving and receiving peer feedback as they are likely to be biased due to peer relations, peer characteristics and personal preferences. To alleviate these biases, anonymous peer feedback was investigated in the current research. Research suggests that the expertise of the reviewer influences the perceived usefulness of the feedback. Therefore, this research investigated the relationship between expertise and the perceptions of peer feedback in a writing assignment of 41 students in higher education with a multilevel analysis. The results show that students perceive peer feedback as more adequate when knowing the reviewer perceives him/herself to have a high level of expertise. Furthermore, the results suggest that students who received feedback from a peer who perceives their expertise as closer to the reviewee’s own perceived expertise was more willing to improve his or her own assignment.     

对高师体育素质教育的探索

通过分析高师体育与素质教育的关系,针对高师体育与素质教育不相适应的地方及高师学生鲜明的师范性特点,提出了高师体育贯彻素质教育的方法。     

高等教育大众化与提高教育质量

我国高等教育现已基本达到了国际公认的大众化标准,应把提高高等教育质量摆在突出的位置。在高等教育大众化、全面推进素质教育、建设学习型社会的时代背景下,高等教育应当被赋予新的内涵。当前应在体制和政策上为提高高等教育质量努力创造条件。     

The distinction between academic standards and quality: implications for transnational higher education

Although the conceptual distinction between academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities is fundamental to an understanding of the role of quality assurance in higher education, the distinction, and its implications, have not always been well understood in the case of transnational higher education. This paper explores both the source of academic standards and the criteria by which the quality of learning opportunities can be judged. It is argued that the distinction is of particular importance in the context of transnational education, because whilst judgements about quality may legitimately be susceptible to a degree of cultural influence, the same is not true of judgements about academic standards. It is suggested that a lack of attention to the logical distinction between standards and quality has hampered efforts by regulatory régimes around the world to develop coherent policies with respect to hosting transnational higher education provision.     

Using technology to facilitate effective assessment for learning and feedback in higher education

The aims of this paper are to examine and critically evaluate a selection of different technological methods that were specifically chosen for their alignment with, and potential to enhance, extant assessment for learning practice. The underpinning perspectives are that: (a) both formative and summative assessment are valuable opportunities for learning, and (b) using technology may enhance learning in assessment and feedback processes. Drawing on the literature and empirical evidence from a research study in a Scottish university, the advantages and drawbacks of using technology are examined. It is asserted that, by adopting a flexible approach and taking small incremental steps, the use of different types of technology can be beneficial in facilitating effective assessment for learning and feedback in higher education.     

高等教育价值观视野下的高等教育质量

在关于高等教育质量的研究与实践中,一种社会本位的价值观长期以来起着主导作用,人们往往主要或只从社会需要的角度去讨论、认识、规定、评价高等教育质量。随着市场经济体制的建立,以学生为本、满足学生个人的需要正在成为我国高等教育实践的一种新的价值取向。从这种价值取向出发,有必要重新认识高等教育质量的含义及其特点。     

The emergence of contesting motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education

Student feedback-based evaluation performs a significant social role in framing perceptions of the quality of teaching in contemporary Australian higher education. Yet its emergence is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only been in widespread application since the mid-1980s. The early manifestations of student feedback-based evaluation came with newly emerging academic development units with a motive to enhance the quality of local teaching and to afford student retention. However, new motives for assailing student feedback evolved with the rapid growth in student numbers, the introduction of student fees and heightened levels of inter-institutional competition for students. As a result, student feedback-based evaluation progressively became also a powerful proxy measure of teaching and curricula quality assurance at an individual, institutional and sectoral level [Blackmore, J. (2009). Academic pedagogies, quality logics and performative universities: Evaluating teaching and what students want. Studies in Higher Education, 34(8), 857–872. doi:10.1080/03075070902898664]. This generated critical tensions between the seminal motive of student feedback around quality improvement, and the rising quality assurances discourses, academic performance management demands and institutional marketing. In this paper, the complex social origins of these competing motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education will be explored and analysed. It is argued this provides an important means of understanding the polarising effects of student feedback-based evaluation in Australian universities.     

Enhancing the quality of engineering education by utilising student feedback

This paper reports on the role of the current student experience questionnaire in gaining student views on their educational experiences while studying at a research-intensive university in Australia. In particular, the paper focuses on the experiences of engineering students. The paper goes on to examine the areas of best practice and those identified for improvement by students. A number of areas identified by engineering students as needing improvement fall within the teaching dimension; in particular, issues relating to feedback to students and clarity of explanation. Finally, the paper outlines some of the actions that have been taken by the university and the Faculty of Engineering based on the results.     

高等教育质量管理新进展:质量文化研究

高等教育质量已经成为高等教育领域的核心话题,各种高等教育质量管理程序和技术开始建立并推广,对保障高等教育质量起到了一定的作用。然而,欧洲的研究者提出,质量管理程序和技术最终不能解决质量的改进问题,而只有由下而上地建立高等教育质量文化,使追求和提升质量成为成员的自觉观念和行动,高等教育质量才能持续提升。围绕"质量文化"这一概念,对欧洲高等教育领域近年的质量文化研究进展进行考察,并从这些新进展中捕捉对中国高等教育质量管理的启示与意义。     

论现代高等教育的品质提升

随着知识经济的发展 ,提升高等教育的内在品质是现代高等教育发展的历史契机。本文从高等教育中的培养目标设置、通识教育问题和教学改革等三个方面对现代高等教育的品质提升做具体讨论     

试论高等教育分类及其质量标准的划界

普通高等教育与高等职业教育是两种不同类型的教育,前者属学术定向的教育,后者属职业定向的教育。两种教育类型的差异,体现在学术质量标准和职业质量标准的差异上。     

国际高等教育质量评估发展的新特点、影响及启示

当前,在国际高等教育质量评估发展中,呈现出实行分类评估、调整不同评估主体职能分工、赋予高等院校以质量保障的主要权责、重视资源使用效率以及学生学习成效、注重定性描述信息等新特点。为深化高等教育改革,我国的高等教育质量评估宜突出评估工作的针对性和适应性,发挥各类主体的创造性,增强高校质量保障的主动性,加大对内部质量保障措施、学习效果以及投入成效的评估力度,提高评估工作的规范性和透明度,完善评估专家的选拔、培训与考核制度和健全对评估工作的评估、评估成效反馈的机制。     

The Australian higher education quality assurance framework

The Australian government initiated a review of higher education in 2008. One of the outcomes of the review was the formation of a national regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), with responsibilities to: register all higher education providers, accredit the courses of the non self-accrediting providers, assure quality against externally set standards and reduce risk by monitoring institutional performance on various measures. One of the key changes in Australian higher education quality assurance is the shift from a ‘fitness-for-purpose’ approach to quality assurance to a compliance-driven approach using an externally developed set of standards monitored by the national regulator, which has legislated powers to place sanctions on universities and other providers for non-compliance. This article outlines the new framework introduced by the government and analyses its limitations in assuring and improving quality in core and support areas. It cautions universities against being dominated by TEQSA's compliance agenda. Rather, it encourages the development and maintenance of shared governance principles and strong internal quality improvement processes along with the establishment of an outcomes focus, which will stand the test of external compliance auditing while allowing the institution to pursue its own educational objectives. The article is based on the authors’ experience and reflection on external, improvement-led quality audits in Australia over the past decade compared with the present compliance-oriented audits now required for institutional registration and ongoing accreditation.