Feedback

Timely, individual feedback is central to guiding learning. Providing such feedback to hundreds of students simultaneously within a timeframe that ensures such feedback can be incorporated into student learning is a daunting prospect. Students appreciate detail in the feedback they receive to identify weaknesses and to understand how they might improve future efforts. If feedback is given on an early assessment task but later assessment tasks within the same subject offer little or no opportunity to incorporate learning from this feedback, students are likely to feel disadvantaged. Timing of feedback is also important. There is little point, from a student point of view, in receiving feedback at the end of a subject when there may be no opportunity to apply the improved understanding.

Source : James, R. McInnes, C. & Devlin, M. (2002)

For example, if feedback is concentrated on summative work it tends to be used to justify the grade rather than develop learning (Price, Handley, and O’Donovan 2008).

The current feedback processes within higher education are often haphazard and idiosyncratic which does not support student engagement. And that engagement with feedback is most effective where: the purpose of the feedback is clear; it has utility and can be used in future work; it accounts for the transfer of tacit as well as explicit knowledge about standards and disciplinary knowledge; and the student perceives some sort of relationship with the marker (Price, Handley, and O’Donovan 2008).

engagement with feedback is most effective where: the purpose of the feedback is clear; it has utility and can be used in future work; it accounts for the transfer of tacit as well as explicit knowledge about standards and disciplinary knowledge; and the student perceives some sort of relationship with the marker (Price, Handley, and O’Donovan 2008).

Source: Price, M., Carroll, J., O'Donovan, B., & Rust, C. (2011).