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Transforming feedback practices
Short bite-sized videos from assessment expert, Professor David Boud's Education Conference keynote, in which he inspired colleagues to transform assessment and feedback at 香港六合彩.
18 July 2022
At the 2022 香港六合彩 Education Conference, delegates were joined online by听Professor David Boud, Alfred Deakin Professor and Foundation Director of the鈥�.听
The keynote has been broken down into short videos to share his听ideas around the future of feedback, the role of students in feedback processes and how courses can be designed to effectively use feedback.听
This case study may include personal opinions that are not aligned with current 香港六合彩 guidance and policy
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Contents:
Assessment and learning听
Assessment must contribute to students鈥� learning; it gives a message to students about what is really important.听
- Do you see assessment as an integral part of student learning?
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Shifting feedback from focusing on the input (what teachers do) to the output (what students do)听
Prof Boud suggests a move from thinking of feedback as something that is done to the students by teachers (an input to students), towards a notion of feedback which is about what students do with it (focusing on the output).
- Is feedback something teachers provide听to students?
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Mark justification is not feedback
When we give feedback, we often run two separate ideas together: marking the work against standards and telling the students (grade justification); and enabling the student to move forward. The former is backward looking, the other about where they go from here. Only the latter can be considered feedback, according to Prof Boud.听
- What is the difference between 鈥榞rade justification鈥� and 鈥榝eedback鈥�?
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Focusing feedback on discrepancies between students鈥� self-assessment and the teacher鈥檚 assessment听
Classic approach
A student produces a piece of work and the teacher identifies what they鈥檝e done well and not so well.
Prof Boud鈥檚 approach
With the students, he first identifies the features of a good piece of work. Together with their submission, the students self-assess against these criteria. Prof Boud then focuses on commenting on the areas where there is a discrepancy between the students鈥� and his assessment.听
- Can you give an example of how to give feedback?
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Students assessing听their own work听
Assessment should equip students to make judgements about their own learning.听
- How do we help build our students' ability to judge their own work?
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Providing feedback to听large cohorts听
Example of a big course (1500 students) where feedback is in focus. Tutors provide audio feedback on six occasions, which allows them to track changes and improvements during the course.听
- How can you provide effective feedback to very large cohorts?
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Audio and video feedback
Students appreciate the personal touch of audio and video feedback (using the听student鈥檚 name, talking directly to them). Prof Boud suggests that these types of feedback are very worthwhile.听
- What do you think about audio and video feedback?
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Impact of receiving feedback
Receiving feedback is not just a cognitive process; it also impacts on students emotionally. So we have to consider that when providing feedback.
- Is the impact of feedback mainly intellectual?听
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Decoupling grades from feedback
Grades can make students engage less with feedback. So it is a good idea to decouple them and give feedback first.听
- Do you think grades and feedback should be decoupled?
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The problem with anonymous marking
There鈥檚 good evidence that anonymity helps to counter bias in marking. But it鈥檚 the opposite we need for feedback. So they work, in a sense, against each other.
When giving feedback, we need to look at the student鈥檚 trajectory, for instance by looking at the comments on a previous assignment, as this can help us determine whether the feedback is having an impact (i.e. changing the output).听
- What is your opinion on anonymous marking?
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The danger of relying on own experiences
We need to own up to the fact that most students today are not like us. What was good enough for us is probably not good enough for students today.听
- Why can鈥檛 we just continue doing what we鈥檝e always done?
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Next steps: programme-level assessment and learning outcomes听
We should look at assessment on a programmatic basis, not a module by module level. We need to look more at the programme learning outcomes. We should disentangle thinking about assessment from thinking about learning in modules.听
- Where do we begin this transformation of our feedback practice?
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Programme-level learning outcomes
Highlighting the importance of programme-level learning outcomes (and how module learning outcomes should relate to these).听
- How do you understand the relationship between module and programme learning outcomes?
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Designing courses with feedback as the focus
Feedback should not be seen as an add-on. Rather we need to design our courses with feedback in mind right from the start. Feedback is one of only few places where we can adjust our courses in relation to differences between students.
- How do you propose centring feedback when designing modules and programmes?
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Last updated: 6 June 2024
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