Feedback Practices

Published 04/10/2019 (you may also be interested in reading Assessment and Feedback)

Feedback, when done right, can be a powerful tool for learning, but too often it is either ignored, unclear or unhelpful in ‘feeding-forward’ to students. We’ve pulled together some great resources, blogs and case studies to support you in developing your feedback practices. But first, we thought we’d start with our top five tips for giving feedback .  

Feed-forward 
What are the next steps for the student?
– Provide three key points for improving the next piece of work. 
– Jisc have created this guide on how to use technology to encourage ‘feed-forward’ practices.
– Signpost to services and resources to help the student where you have mentioned areas for improvement.

Marking criteria 
Be clear why the marks have been given. Reference relevant marking criteria before and after the assignment. 
– Consider co-creating marking criteria , which has the dual benefit of engagement in both the assessment creation and consequent feedback.

Manageable and dialogic 
Keep it short, digestible and concise but provide opportunities for students to discuss feedback with you or other students. When feedback becomes a dialogue, we know it is effective. 
– Simple things like asking a student to predict their mark before sharing it can engage them in their feedback to see how close they were
– This research (Bloxham, 2010) highlights the use of interactive assessment coversheets and the impact on feedback (p296 onwards for results and conclusions).

Legible and findable 
Typed documents or digital feedback, such as Blackboard and Turnitin, ensure legibility and can be easily adapted for re-use. 
– BILT and DEO have interviewed colleagues about their use of online feedback tools.

Audio feedback 
Quick, effective and engaging, audio feedback provides a personal response and creates a sense of conversation. 
– DEO created this case study with the School of Modern Languages on their use of audio and video feedback.

Official University Guidance
The Academic Quality and Process Office (AQPO) has developed guidance for academics in providing students with feedback. The website contains documents such as:

• Institutional Principles for Assessment and Feedback in Taught Programmes
• University Approaches to Delivering Formative Feedback

Other helpful resources

• HEA Developing Feedback toolkit .
  This toolkit contains a guide for students for engaging with feedback (p15-30) and contains session outlines and associated resources from p30 onwards for staff to complete with students.
• Bristol Futures: A short guide to effective feedback 
  This short, two-page guide provides dozens of helpful tips to make small improvements to your feedback, grouped into five key areas.
• LEAPForward – giving feedback in work-placements
  These resources were created as part of a project undertaken with BILT catalyst fund in 2017-18 and are highly useful in scenarios where feedback is being given to a learner in work placement.
• University of Bristol’s ‘Ten principles for giving good feedback‘
  These ten principles were developed as part of the National Students Union work on assessment and feedback which has been endorsed by the University of Bristol.
• Carol Evans’ EAT Framework
  Pages 5-7 contain four key principles for giving good feedback to students.
• Naomi Winstone’s interview and BILT seminar
  Following her EdEx seminar, Naomi was interviewed by BILT on why she believes students’ understanding the feedback process is so important.