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Whilst simply introducing more technology enabled feedback may bring benefits in itself, in order to gain maximum benefit, it is worth reviewing your approach to see where other improvements could be made (Bearman, Boud and others in Payne, 2021). Experts such as David Carless, David Boud and others . (1) Assessment and feedback experts propose shifting from the one-way teacher to student feedback model towards a dialogic approach in which the student action and outputs of the feedback process are what matters most. (2)
Many of the suggestions in the Technology Enhanced Feedback table reflect this dialogic, learner centred approach (Ajjawi & Boud in Winstone & Carless, 2020). Below the table you will find some Feedback principles, further resources to follow up on and suggested activities.
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The table provides practical examples of how technology can help you enhance feedback practice. Within each example there is information about which platform at UCL is suitable and whether the method is appropriate for large classes with links to supporting guidance and, where available, case studies. Whilst many of the suggestions are not necessarily more time consuming even for large cohorts, staff may need additional support in changing practice.
In this table you will find entries marked 'C' which indicate that they are provided centrally by the institution for all to use. Those marked with a 'D' require local approval and procurement at departments or Faculty level. If you are interested in exploring any of those marked with 'D' you are advised to speak to your departmental education leadership team. This is because assessment and feedback are a priority for UCL and work in this area is being progressed through Faculty and Departmental Education Plans (FEPs and DEPs), overseen by the Office of UCL Vice Provost (OVP) Education and Student Experience.
NB: if you spot any errors or areas that need updating please contact the Digital Assessment Advisory: assessment-advisory@ucl.ac.uk.
Example | Method | Suitable for large cohorts | Supporting technologies at UCL | |
AI as a feedback partner | AI content generators can be used as 'feedback partners', engaging students in critical dialogue with the AI outputs and honing their ability to ask key questions and evaluate responses (for accuracy, quality, ethical values and so on). Allowing students to generate their own feedback by comparing their work against a range of AI outputs can help them develop self-efficacy. | Yes
| Depending on your purposes, a range of AI content generators that can be used. You can find information on AI tools in the UCL Generative AI hub. | |
Audio and Video Feedback | Audio and video can often convey more engaging, nuanced and personalised feedback than written comments. It can also include a larger quantity of information, without being more time consuming to produce (Huang et al as cited in Payne, 2021). Whilst written comments are extremely valuable, studies show that students rate the overall quality of video/audio feedback more highly than text based. You could consider using audio and video to complement written comments in order to expand on potentially ambiguous or complex areas, highlight common themes for the whole class or use screencasts to talk through an exemplar, demonstrating areas for improvement. | Yes |
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Automated feedback in online quizzes | Online quizzes can be used for diagnostic tests and provide feedback to students on their performance, helping them identify areas of improvement. The level of nuance and functionality depends on the software used. | Yes |
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Automated feedback for written assignments | To date there is no software that can produce in-depth and personalised feedback on written assignments or other submission formats, but some can cover the more general areas or provide some efficiencies. |
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Collaborative Tools | Collaborative tools can be used as group assignments, enabling real-time feedback and collaboration. When using group assignments, it is also important to provide guidance for students on how to engage. | Yes, but students will need to be divided into groups. |
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Feedback Analytics | Feedback analytics help identify patterns in how students respond to feedback. You can use this data to inform and refine your feedback strategies. | Yes | Currently there are no analytic tools available at UCL but this is an area for development. | |
Feedback Dashboards | Feedback dashboards aggregates feedback data, making it easier to track and assess student progress. | Yes | My Feedback (C) currently has limited functionality in this area. It displays Moodle and Turnitin assignment feedback for students and staff to view in one location. It only links to Turnitin as displaying comments is not enabled. | |
Feedback Tracking and Timelines | It is important to set clear expectations for students about when and how they can expect to receive feedback. | Yes | There are not yet any centralised tools available to allow tracking of the timing and distribution of feedback to ensure consistency and fairness but research in this area is underway. The School of Pharmacy have implemented their own feedback tracker – see case study below. Simply using the VLE (Moodle) effectively for communication about how and when feedback will be provided will go a long way to supporting students. Handbooks could be provided in Moodle's Book resource (C) to make navigation easier and to allow for more visual and engaging presentation with links to guidance. Case study Enhancing the Student Experience with a Feedback Tracker by Adam Phillips, Head of Digital Education for the School of Pharmacy | |
Feedback Workshops and Tutorials | Develop video or interactive tutorials on providing and receiving feedback. You could:
| Yes |
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Online discussion forum | Discussion forums can be set up to allow students to post questions related to assignments or course content. Forums encourage peer-to-peer feedback, reducing tutor workload while promoting collaborative learning. | Yes, but best to create smaller groups to facilitate discussion. |
Case study Assessing online discussion forum posts, Rochelle Burgess (UCL Institute for Global Health). | |
Online Surveys | Online surveys can help you gather insights on the effectiveness of your feedback methods and areas for improvement. Participation will be much enhanced by carrying out activities in class. | Yes |
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Peer Review and Self-Assessment | Students can provide feedback to their peers, reducing tutors' workload while promoting student engagement, critical thinking, collaborative learning and helping students see different perspectives. It also prepares students for the real-world skill of giving and receiving feedback. You can employ peer evaluation tools that allow students to assess and provide feedback on group projects or presentations. | Yes, but does need academic support and oversight.
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Portfolios | You can use portfolios to collect and reflect on feedback during the course of a semester. This can either be as part of ongoing project where work is submitted and feedback on that provided within the portfolio OR it can be simply a reflective tool for students to collect and comment on their feedback. This could be used as part of the assessment process – demonstrating how they use feedback effectively. | Yes, but would need a large tutor team to support and assess. |
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Rubrics and Grading Templates | An assessment rubric is a grading template, aligned to course objectives and is used in the process of assessing student work.
| Yes |
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Virtual Office Hours | Students can ask questions and seek clarifications in real-time, making the feedback process more interactive. Also, students can see what other students are asking. | Yes, but might be more manageable if you divide into smaller groups. | Virtual office hours can be provided via MS Teams (C) for video conferencing or chat. You can just provide times and one Teams link which can be used for each session. | |
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- Provide early opportunities for students to practice and act on feedback The self-efficacy (and hence retention and ultimate achievement) of all students, whatever their level, will be improved by providing early opportunities to practice and learn from both achievements and mistakes. Students can struggle with knowing how best to direct their efforts, and early formative feedback can allay some of their fears, leading to better outcomes and giving them sufficient time to make use of it in their summative assessments.
- Encourage students to be active participants in feedback process. David Nicols and others point out that there is an assumption embedded in the NSS that feedback is something (usually written comments) delivered from the tutor to the student and if students received more of this they would perform better in their studies. This 'bypasses some fundamental aspects of the feedback cycle and it ignores the active role students must play in the process for it to be effective.' (Nicols, 20083) . Rather than focussing on feedback as something done by tutors, we need to focus on what the student does both as part of the feedback process and as a result of it.
- Establish a culture of feedback dialogue A dialogic approach, introduced early on, will help build student confidence and motivation which is key to engagement and success. It will need careful introduction in order to build trust; the balance of power between staff and students can impact on its success and may require a substantial shift in thinking for many students and academics alike.
- Address student conceptions of feedback As mentioned, students may not always recognize feedback opportunities as they may expect this to come in the form of written comments. Be explicit about the forms that feedback takes (e.g., group, informal or verbal) and where relevant highlight that feedback is being provided. Where more than one mode is used, be clear with students about the purpose of each, how to interpret them and how they connect with each other. Also, some students may be more alert to feedback opportunities than others and some may be more confident in actively seeking out feedback from you. Gently indicate different feedback moments to students and provide feedback opportunities for all students rather than just those who seek it out. And always ensure that students know how and where to access any recorded feedback (written, audio etc).
- Uncouple marking and feedback Marking and feedback are two conceptually different purposes (Winston and Boud 2020). different purposes.(4) If marks are provided along with feedback, it is either too late to use it use it because it has been given at the end of unit of study OR students just students just go straight to the grade and ignore the feedback. If the grade is not so good, the student may want the type of feedback that justifies their grade but not be receptive to developmental (forward facing) feedback and if they achieved a high grade, they may see the feedback as irrelevant.
- Establish a shared understanding of feedback practice amongst staff and students Individual academics may have different views or approaches to feedback which can create inconsistency of experience for students and confused messaging. As a team, it is good practice to agree (and then communicate with students so they share your interpretations) on the following:
- the purpose of feedback at different stages of the programme.
- interpretation of language, standards and criteria around assessment.
- what constitutes good feedback. It is not only about telling students what they have done well or not so well in past work but is future facing, helping the student with strategies to move forward.
- the interpretations of standards, processes and regulations.
- roles and responsibilities around the assessment and feedback process, deadlines and expectations.
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- Carry out a moderation exercise and share how each tutor has applied the rubric and what feedback they would provide.
- Ask each tutor to provide two pieces of feedforward telling students what they can do better in their next assessment piece.
- Link feedback to performance criteria Link feedback to requirements of summative assessment as part of an aligned approach and revisit those requirements in order to explicitly show how they are supporting the students' development.
- Provide a balance of tutor, peer and self-assessment opportunities As well as tutor to student feedback, including opportunities for students to assess their own work and that of others helps then develop an understanding of criteria, their own capabilities and to reflect on their learning. Rather than over reliance on tutor feedback, peer and self-evaluation support students to realistically benchmark their own work to the criteria. Self-assessment helps students develop the necessary critical skills to realistically judge their own performance. This is essential for future life and work as well as their studies. (Sharma et al, 20165) . Supporting peer and self-assessment can take some advanced planning and you need to try and choose strategies that best fit the stage of study, subject and levels of confidence of students involved.
- Manage your workload Building in formative activities can be tricky if you are focusing on getting through content in class time, but if you can dedicate some time to feedback opportunities this will be immensely helpful to your students and to your understanding of what their learning needs are.
- Put effort where it counts, e.g., try and ensure you are giving feedback to students when they can actually make use of it and in a way that makes sense of where they are in their learning. For example, feedback for summative end point assessment could be used to justify grades and refer back to earlier formative feedback.
- Make use of local/departmental support networks - there is a lot of expertise out there within your departments or in wider networks. In a lot of cases there is no point in reinventing the wheel.
- If individual comments have a lot in common, these can be given as general feedback to the cohort. You can then spend the time you save on repeating yourself to give more student-specific comments.
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- Audio approaches in Wiseflow and Moodle.
- How can we give students better quality feedback? an activity you can do with your departmental/module teams. It was designed by Kay Sambell, Sally Brown and Phil Race, three renowned UK experts in assessment.
- Assessment and Feedback: Watt works Resources developed by Kay Sambell for Herriot Watt including time friendly feedback strategies.
- The 7 components of technology enhanced feedback, Monash University.
- AI as Feedback Partner, Mike Sharples.
- Unlocking the power of comparison-based feedback. Podcast with David Nichol from Glasgow University.
- Working effectively in a group (guidance for students)
- Assessing group work
References
3. Nicol, D. 2009, Centre for Educational Development Reflections on Assessment and Feedback (May 2009 conference publication), Queen's University Belfast
- Payne, A. 2021 (preprint)
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- Winstone, N. and Carless, D. (2020) Designing Effective Feedback Processes in Higher Education: A Learning-Focused Approach, Abingdon: Routledge, 208pp. Available to download under creative commons licence.
- Nicol, D. 2009, Centre for Educational Development Reflections on Assessment and Feedback (May 2009 conference publication), Queen's University Belfast
- Winston, N. and Boud, D. (2022): The need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education in Studies in Higher Education Volume 47. Issue 3
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- Sharma, R. et al (2016) Impact of self-assessment by students on their learning. International Journal of Applied Basic Medical Research. Jul-Sep;6(3):226-94.