Date: July 2026
Authors: Rose Murray , Rebecca Pike, Reinart Jensema
Themes: Assessment Feedback, Feedback literacy, Student development, Assessment design
Subject area: Assessment and feedback literacy and skills development
Faculty: Health and Life Sciences
The Practice
From Feedback Fatigue to Feedback Fluency: Enhancing Student Learning Through Assessment Innovation is an education development project evaluating the effectiveness of the revised Assessment and Feedback Portfolio (AFP), now integrated with the Bristol Skills Profile (BSP), in supporting student engagement with feedback, assessment literacy, and self-regulated learning (please see previous BILT blog for links to these resources). The project was developed in response to persistent challenges in student engagement with feedback and the need to help students use feedback more actively to improve future performance. During Bridging Weeks (the first week of TB1 for Years 2 and 3) students are required to complete a Feedback Engagement Tool – a task which asks students to consolidate, synthesise and action plan on their assessment feedback, alongside a summative reflective assessment which explores their skill development in chosen areas of the BSP. The project explores how students connect academic feedback with skills development and feedforward practices and involves undergraduate students across Biological Sciences programmes, with annual cohorts of around 200-250 students in Years 2 and 3. The project aims to generate evidence-informed recommendations that can support wider adoption of these approaches across the University and beyond.
Findings
The project found that the Assessment and Feedback Portfolio (AFP), including the Feedback Engagement Tool (FET), assessment landing maps and reflective assessment, supported students in developing stronger assessment and feedback literacy. Students reported that the tools helped them understand the connections between assessments across their programme, synthesise feedback from multiple pieces of work, identify recurring strengths and areas for improvement, and apply feedback more effectively to future assessments. Many students described gaining a clearer understanding of their academic journey and viewing feedback as part of an ongoing process rather than isolated events.
A key lesson learned was that structured or “forced” engagement with feedback through a low-stakes summative reflective assessment encouraged students to actively engage with feedback and reflection activities that they may otherwise have overlooked. While some students questioned the need for a reflective assessment, many acknowledged that the assessment prompted meaningful engagement with feedback and helped them recognise their progress and plan future actions.
The findings also suggest that the intervention had a greater impact on Year 2 students than Year 3 students. This indicates that introducing feedback literacy and self-regulation tools earlier in a programme may be particularly beneficial, helping students develop effective feedback practices before entering later stages of study.
The project highlighted the importance of making programme-level assessment design visible to students. Assessment landscapes and skills mapping helped students recognise how skills develop across assessments and where feedback could be applied in future tasks. A broader lesson was that the academic journey must first be made clear to staff before it can be clearly communicated to students.
Finally, the project demonstrated that the AFP model is scalable and transferable. Even without the full suite of AFP tools, the Feedback Engagement Tool and the reflective assessment activities can be adopted into any programme with relative ease and our findings suggest that these could have a real benefit on student engagement with assessment feedback.
The Impact
The impact of this pilot was measured by two methods: firstly, student confidence in 8 skills (based on the Bristol Skills Profile) and the usefulness of their course in gaining employability skills was quantified before and after the industry-linked projects; and secondly, focus groups were held after the conclusion of the projects to understand the student experience and any areas for improvement in more detail.
The project has had a positive impact on students’ engagement with feedback, assessment literacy and awareness of their academic development. Students reported that the tools helped them understand how assessments fit together across their programme, identify patterns in their feedback, and recognise opportunities to apply feedback to future work. Many students described gaining a clearer understanding of their skills development and viewing assessment as a connected learning journey rather than a series of isolated tasks.
Qualitative feedback suggests that the reflective assessment successfully encouraged students to engage with feedback in a more meaningful and structured way. Students reported that being required to reflect on feedback helped them identify recurring strengths and weaknesses, recognise previously unrealised progress, and develop clearer plans for future improvement. Several students also described increased confidence in their ability to use feedback and manage their academic development.
The project appears to have had the greatest impact on Year 2 students, who benefited from the structured support provided by the AFP at a point where they are still developing assessment literacy and self-regulatory learning practices. This finding highlights the value of introducing feedback engagement activities early within degree programmes.
From a staff perspective, the project has stimulated broader conversations about programme-level assessment design, feedback practices, and the integration of the Bristol Skills Profile within the curriculum. The process of developing assessment landscapes and skills maps encouraged colleagues to consider more explicitly how assessments connect across a programme, where opportunities for feedforward exist, and how skills development can be made more visible to students. Building on this work, the project leads delivered a workshop at the 2026 BILT Conference, supporting colleagues from across the University to review and evaluate assessment and feedback practices within their own programmes. These activities have helped raise awareness of the importance of coherent assessment design and have provided practical approaches for making students’ learning journeys and skills development more transparent.
While longer-term impacts on student attainment and satisfaction require further evaluation, preliminary evidence indicates that the practice has enhanced students’ engagement with feedback, strengthened feedforward behaviours, and supported the development of more self-regulated learners.
Next Steps
The reflective assessments and associated Assessment and Feedback Portfolio resources will continue to be embedded within Years 2 and 3 of the Biological Sciences programmes. We will continue to monitor student engagement and feedback, using these insights to inform ongoing refinements and ensure the approach remains effective and relevant to student needs.
Contact
Rose Murray (Rose.Murray@bristol.ac.uk) or Rebecca Pike (bex.pike@bristol.ac.uk)
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