Investigating the relationship between quality,format and delivery of feedback for written assignments in higher education

Feedback can have a great impact on student learning. However, in order for it to be effective, feedback needs to be of high quality. Electronic marking has been one of the latest adaptations of technology in teaching and offers a new format of delivering feedback. There is little research investigating the impact the format of feedback has on quality of feedback and subsequently on student learning. This study sets out to investigate the impact paper-based and electronic methods of assignment submission and return have on students’ and markers’ perceived quality of feedback. Students and markers on an undergraduate course were asked to complete an anonymous online survey investigating their perceptions of quality, format and timeliness of feedback delivered electronically and on paper. The results showed that marking and providing feedback electronically was an acceptable method for markers, reporting improved speed and consistency of marking. There was no increase or decrease in satisfaction with the feedback received. Overall, electronic marking was found to be an acceptable method of delivery of feedback on written assignments by both students and markers. The findings of this study suggest that electronic marking can result in more timely feedback for students without impacting on quality.     

A Cohort-Driven Assessment Task for Scientific Report Writing

A formative assessment task was developed to improve the scientific report writing skills of university students. Students undertaking this task typically possessed varying levels of scientific literacy and were drawn from a cohort of mixed abilities. The assessment task involved the construction of a scientific report that included feedback from instructor to students before final submission of the assessment piece. After initial submission of a scientific report, the instructor developed a cohort-specific marking scheme based on the deficiencies that were evident within the class group. Using a mixture of peer and self-review against specific criteria, the students were required to resubmit an amended report. This resulted in elevated marks compared with those that would have been obtained after first submission, thus rewarding the student for the application of feedback. This technique proved to be efficient for both parties and also resulted in improvement of skills of the entire student population, regardless of the ability of the student prior to the assessment task. Using this methodology, students of varying aptitudes were able to measure their own skill improvement against tangible criteria, and enjoy a degree of learning success independent of the ranking within their group.     

From copying to learning: using exemplars to engage students with assessment criteria and feedback

Feedback is central to pedagogic theory, and if feedback is to be effective, students need to engage with it and apply it at some point in the future. However, student dissatisfaction with feedback – as evidenced in the National Student Survey – suggests that there are problems which limit student engagement with feedback, such as their perception that much of their feedback is irrelevant to future assignments. This article reports on a study which sought to enhance engagement by giving students exemplar assignments annotated with feedback before submission of their final assignments. This was done by providing an online facility where students could view exemplars and post comments or questions to tutors and peers on a discussion board. The exemplar facility was highly valued by students, although there were no quantitative effects such as an increase in students’ assignment marks when compared with the previous cohort. The article reflects on possible reasons for this result and discusses ways to improve the exemplar facility, for example by facilitating dialogue between tutors and students. The article concludes with lessons learned about how to construct exemplars, and considers how exemplars might also be used within marking teams to improve consistency of marking.     

A comparison of electronic and paper-based assignment submission and feedback

This paper presents the results of a study evaluating student perceptions of online assignment submission. 47 students submitted assignments and received feedback via features within the Virtual Learning Environment Blackboard™. The students then completed questionnaires comparing their experience of online submission and feedback with traditional methods.
Results indicated that 88% of students reported a time saving and many reported financial benefits using online submission. 93% of students preferred having their feedback available online rather than printed and handed to them. Overall, students preferred online assignment management to postal or physical hand-in. The main disadvantage of electronic submission appeared to be student distrust of the receipt system.
The use of online assignment submission and management is recommended for use in Higher Education establishments where students may be remote. It is most suitable for assignments that do not require inclusion of many images.     

‘Are you listening please?’ The advantages of electronic audio feedback compared to written feedback

Feedback on students' work is, probably, one of the most important aspects of learning, yet students' report, according to the National Union of Students (NUS) Survey of 2008, unhappiness with the feedback process. Students were unhappy with the quality, detail and timing of feedback. This paper examines the benefits of using audio, as opposed to written, feedback in an attempt to overcome student criticisms. Using the Audacity audio software MP3 feedback files were created and sent to 60 students either via a VLE or email. The students were asked to complete an online survey on audio feedback. Twenty‐six students responded. The results were, generally, very positive. The use of audio feedback seemed to have overcome the problems reported by the NUS survey. Students are at least 10 times more likely to open audio files compared to collecting written feedback. The paper concludes with reflections, and advice, on introducing audio feedback.     

How accurately can students evaluate the quality of self-generated examples of declarative concepts? Not well,and feedback does not help

Students are commonly asked to learn declarative concepts in many courses. One strategy students report using involves generating concrete examples of abstract concepts. If students have difficulties evaluating the quality of their generated examples, then instructors will need to provide students with appropriate scaffolds or feedback to improve judgmentaccuracy. No prior research has investigated if students can accurately evaluate the quality of the examples they generate, which was the first aim of the current research. The second aim of this research was to investigate the extent to which providing feedback while students evaluate their generated examples can improve the accuracy of their example-quality judgments. In two experiments, students generated examples for declarative concepts from social psychology and then judged the quality of their examples. When making judgments, students received no feedback (in which they were only given the key term), full definition feedback (in which they were shown the definition of the declarative concept) or idea unit feedback (in which they first evaluated if they represented each idea unit of the definition within their example). Outcomes showed that students were overconfident when judging the quality of their examples, specifically for commission errors (i.e., examples that were entirely incorrect). Surprisingly, full definition and idea unit feedback did not help students improve the accuracy of their example-quality judgments. Thus, until scaffolds are discovered to reduce student overconfidence, instructors will need to assist in evaluating generated examples as students use this strategy to learn declarative concepts.     

The relationship between student understanding,satisfaction and performance in an Australian engineering programme

It has often been suggested that actual or anticipated final grades may influence the ratings given by students in student experience surveys but few studies have been able to test this using actual grades. A study was carried out involving six courses over all four year levels of an undergraduate engineering programme, where students were asked to identify themselves in an experience survey by providing their student ID on the survey form. The aim of the study was to investigate a number of questions related to the readiness of students to identify themselves, and to examine any correlation between final examination grades, ratings of student satisfaction and the students’ perception of their level of understanding of material in their courses. Students were discovered to have a poor idea of how well they understand the concepts presented in their courses. This lack of an accurate idea of their own understanding is particularly important because ‘student understanding’ correlated to the ratings they gave to the course. Ratings were largely unaffected by final marks but students who gave their ID outperformed those who did not in end‐of‐year examinations. Higher year level students were more inclined to identify themselves and ratings tended to increase with year level.     

Development of an instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers in guiding small groups

In many student-centred curricula, teacherswork in small groups with students. Guidingsmall groups is rather complex. Teachers needto aim to stimulate students in these groupstowards constructive, self-directed, contextualand collaborative learning. It is alsoimportant that teachers demonstrate adequateinterpersonal behaviour towards students. Inthis study, an instrument was developed toprovide teachers with feedback about theirperformance to improve their behaviour. The aimof this study is to report on the development,reliability and validity of an instrument toevaluate teachers' performance in guiding smallgroups.The items of the instrument were based on fivetheoretical dimensions: constructive,self-directed, contextual and collaborativelearning and the teacher's interpersonalbehaviour. Students were asked to fill out thisinstrument and evaluate the performance of theteacher guiding the small group at the end ofseveral courses. The instrument was tested in apilot-study. Confirmatory factor analysis andgeneralizability studies indicated that theinstrument is fairly valid and reliable whensix student responses are available perteacher. Teachers receive detailed feedbackabout their performance indicating strong andweak aspects. Further research is needed todetermine whether this feedback indeed leads toimprovement of teachers' behaviour.     

Reasons for student dropout in an online course in a rural K–12 setting

Rural schools in the USA use online courses to overcome problems such as attracting and retaining teachers, geographic isolation, low student enrollment, and financial constraints. This paper reports on the reasons that 39% of rural high school students who enrolled in an online Advanced Placement course subsequently dropped the course. Students who dropped the course were asked to provide an email statement detailing their reasons for doing so. On-site facilitators—local staff members situated in the small rural schools where students were enrolled—also provided reasons whenever one of their students dropped the course. Results indicate that the reasons given by students and on-site facilitators for dropping the course often agreed, and tended to fall within the following five categories: scheduling and time constraints, academic rigor and motivation, technology problems, problems with online medium and lack of teacher immediacy, and parental influences.     

An action research process on university tutorial sessions with small groups: presentational tutorial sessions and online communication

We describe and analyse the action research process carried out by us as teachers in a general didactics course in the University of Malaga (Spain). The course methodology combined lectures to the whole class and small-group work. We were in charge of guiding small-group work. In the small groups, students researched on an educational innovation guided by a teacher from the educative system (primary, secondary, ‘A’-level). Students used theoretical concepts explained in lectures to analyse educational innovative realities. Students met with the lecturers at Faculty periodically. These lecturers used online tools to guide small group work between meetings. Specifically, students developed a diary using the ad hoc tool in Online Campus, based on Moodle. Lecturers read the diaries on a regular basis and offered feedback to the students. Additionally, students and lecturers kept in contact between meetings by email and forums. Finally, students submitted a report of their research and lecturers offered feedback before a final version of the report. We carried out an action research process to explore the fit between the general purposes of the course and our work as lecturers with the small groups of students. Moreover, we studied the interrelationship between the meetings at Faculty and the online communication via diaries, email and forums.     

An empirical exploration of metacognitive assessment activities in a third-year civil engineering hydraulics course

Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, and provocative; understanding these difficult concepts allows students to be capable of solving advanced problems. This investigation and evaluation of a metacognitive curricular approach explore variation in students' and teachers' discernment of structural complexity of concepts and its potential for enhancing students' learning and conceptual understanding of threshold concepts. Three trials of a metacognitive assessment activity administered to two cohorts of a civil engineering course (n?=?276 and n?=?264) were investigated. Students were presented with several answers (varying in structural complexity) to a question about a threshold concept and asked to mark each response. Quantitative analyses compared students' and teachers' marking schemes within and across trials, and qualitative analyses explored students' written reflections following the activity. Students' justifications for their marking schemes, their reflections on the activity's usefulness, and the convergence of students' and teachers' marking schemes suggest that the activity supported deep forms of student learning.     

The Use of Exemplars and Formative Feedback when Using Student Derived Marking Criteria in Peer and Self-assessment

This paper reports a study which implemented a method of student self and peer assessment involving student constructed marking criteria in the presence of exemplars. Pairs of first-year undergraduate biology students were asked to complete a poster assignment. The study was designed to allow the evaluation of (1) student self and peer marking and tutor marking for individual marking criteria following the use of exemplars; (2) the role of exemplars in providing a focus for formative feedback about subject standards. The present study shows that: (a) the use of exemplars can help students demonstrate greater understanding of both marking criteria and subject standards; (b) the use of exemplars can help students learning so that higher quality outcomes are produced; (c) the use of exemplars forms a focus for meaningful formative feedback; (d) students may make more objective judgements as a result of peer assessment compared to self-assessment.     

基于LabVIEW的低成本在线电子电路实验室的教学设计与开发

介绍了一种基于LabVIEW的低成本在线电子电路实验室,系统采用NI公司的电子教学平台ELVIS II,学生通过因特网使用LabVIEW的图形用户界面与系统进行交互,可以在任何时间任何地点独立完成自己所选择的实验,在成功在线提交实验报告之后通过简短问题的回答得到评分结果。此外还论述了实验室管理系统软件的构建方法,虚拟在线电子电路实验室在实际教学中的实践与应用,并对其教学效果进行了评估。     

The Importance of Marking Criteria in the Use of Peer Assessment

This paper reports a study which implemented and evaluated a method of peer assessment, as a formative and summative assessment procedure. Pairs of first‐year undergraduate biology students were asked to complete a poster assignment on a specific aspect of nerve physiology. This paper contains details of a method which allows student peer and tutor marking of work against the individual marking criteria to be evaluated. The results show that a comparison between the tutor and the student peer mark may be misleading as a guide to the validity of peer assessment. The importance of considering the individual sections of the marking criteria is illustrated. It was found that when the individual criteria were analysed the number of students marking the same as the tutor ranged from 31% to 62%. It also became clear that specific areas of the marking criteria were prone to over and under‐marking. Analysis of student feedback forms showed that students not only liked carrying out peer assessment, but felt the benefits in terms of developing facets of their learning process and heightening their awareness of their work. These results are discussed in the light of other studies.     

Collaborative design of assessment criteria to improve undergraduate student engagement and performance

Student engagement is vital in enhancing the student experience and encouraging deeper learning. Involving students in the design of assessment criteria is one way in which to increase student engagement. In 2011, a marking matrix was used at Aston University (UK) for logbook assessment (Group One) in a project-based learning module. The next cohort of students in 2012 (Group Two) were asked to collaboratively redesign the matrix and were given a questionnaire about the exercise. Group Two initially scored a lower average logbook mark than Group One. However, Group Two showed the greatest improvement between assessments, and the quality of, and commitment to, logbooks was noticeably improved. Student input resulted in a more defined, tougher mark scheme. However, this provided an improved feedback system that gave more scope for self-improvement. The majority of students found the exercise incorporated their ideas, enhanced their understanding, and was useful in itself.     

The Use of Student Derived Marking Criteria in Peer and Self-assessment

This paper reports a study which implemented and evaluated a method of student self and peer assessment involving student constructed marking criteria. The theme of the importance of marking criteria (Orsmond et al ., 1996, 1997) is developed. Pairs of first-year undergraduate biology students were asked to complete a poster assignment. The study was designed to allow the comparison and evaluation of (1) student self and tutor marking for individual marking criteria; (2) student self and peer marking for individual marking criteria; and (3) student and tutor marking for student constructed and tutor provided individual marking criteria. The present study shows that: (a) students may be less able to discriminate between individual marking criteria which they have constructed compared to marking criteria that have been provided; (b) asking students to construct their own marking criteria in discussion with tutors or fellow students does not enhance agreement between student/tutor or student/student marking; and (c) allowing students to construct their own marking criteria may lead to different learning outcomes compared to providing students with a marking criteria.     

Small group discussion as a key component in online assessment training for enhanced student learning in web-based peer assessment

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of online assessment training, with synchronous group discussion as a key component, on subsequent web-based peer assessment results. Participants included 81 college students, mostly women, taking a business writing class. After initial submission of a draft counter-offer letter, they completed online assessment training by engaging in a consensus-seeking, synchronous group discussion of the rubric-based ratings they gave to sample counter-offer letters. They then engaged in web-based assessment of randomly assigned peer counter-offer letters and upon receiving peer feedback, submitted revision of their own counter-offer letter. The discussion groups were randomly assigned to either anonymous (using a pseudo name) or identified conditions (using real name). Findings indicate that the quality of student counter-offer letters improved after online assessment training, and improved even more after web-based peer assessment. There were no significant differences between anonymous discussion groups and identified groups.     

Implementation of Real‐World Experiential Learning in a Food Science Course Using a Food Industry‐Integrated Approach

Success skills have been ranked as the most important core competency for new food science professionals to have by food science graduates and their employers. It is imperative that food science instructors promote active learning in food science courses through experiential learning activities to enhance student success skills such as oral and written communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and team work. The aim of this study was to incorporate “real‐world” experiential learning into a food product development course. Undergraduate students enrolled in a food product development course worked on a semester‐long product development case study developed by the Instructor of the course and the Manager from ACH Food Companies, Inc. The case study was presented to students in the form of a product development competition. Students were placed into groups and given the task to develop a cake mix with specified parameters. At the end of the semester, student groups participated in a case study competition to showcase their product concepts. Each student group gave a PowerPoint presentation and was evaluated using selected criteria. Students rated the course overall as being very good. Students perceived the case study to be beneficial and informative regarding employer (ACH's) expectations. Students recommended that the Instructor minimize restrictions/specifications for product concepts and increase the quantity of course/laboratory meetings per week. This approach will continue to be used and further evaluated as an approach to incorporate active learning and provide food science undergraduates with a sense of employer expectations.