1. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Help clarify good performance (goals, criteria, standards) Do your students understand the assessment criteria that you use? Do they understand the standards required to achieve a particular grade for each criterion or overall? Do you discuss these with them before they start the task? If you do, are the students able to state these in their own words? Research has shown that students who engage with assessment criteria and standards are more likely to be able to manage their own learning. For example, Rust et al. (2003) found that by working with students in their first term on assessment, assessment criteria and marking, that there was a significant increase in the marks in the final assessment, compared with students who had not taken part in the exercise.

2. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoint project Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider… Provide clear definitions of what is required for each taskScreen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording Provide explicit marking criteria and standardsScreen Recording Tools/ Referencing and Citation Provide opportunities for discussion and reflection about the criteria and standards before students start the task Collaboration Tools/ Online Testing Students put assessment criteria into their own wordsCollaboration Tools/ Online Testing/ Referencing and Citation Students generate own criteria and standards and compare to staff criteriaCollaboration Tools/ Online Testing Provide model answers and opportunities for students to compare their own work against these Screen Recording Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Explain the rationale for the assessment taskScreen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording Marking exercises where students look at examples of work of different standards from a previous year to identify a rank order and why Online Testing/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools

3. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Encourage 'time and effort' on challenging learning tasks Are your assessments designed to encourage students to work in and out of class throughout the semester or year? Can the students see the relevance of the assessment task – is it an authentic assessment? Spreading activities either as discrete pieces of work or as components of a single piece of work throughout the module balances the student workload and can encourage deep learning. This approach also provides opportunities for ongoing feedback. Even if marks are attached to the individual elements (summative assessment), the activities will also be formative assessments, because students should be able to build on the feedback provided for subsequent stages or elements. Although a particularly useful approach to use with first year students, this can be extended to students in other years.

4. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider… Students complete a number of small summative assessments with regular feedback Online Testing/ Written Feedback Tools Group work activities or large assessment broken down into smaller tasks. Progress is monitored and feedback provided in a staged way over the course of the module Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Get students to set their own schedule for completing an assignment task with milestones. Marks could be awarded if the student delivers as planned and on time Written Feedback Tools Portfolio of activities that is taken in regularly – the activities could become progressively more challenging Portfolio Tools Regular activities to be completed in classInteractive Voting/ Lecture Participation Provide opportunities to practise skills before doing the assessed workOnline Testing/ Written Feedback Tools Mock exams or provide opportunities for students to do past exam questions with feedback in a safe environment Online Testing/ Screen Recording Staged final year projects – literature review delivered firstOnline Submission Have students prepare basic material prior to a session and use the time for more in depth activities Collaboration Tools Explain the rationale for the assessment taskScreen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording

5. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Deliver high quality feedback What kind of feedback do you provide? How does it encourage students to assess and correct themselves? It is important that students have the opportunity to learn from the feedback provided by staff. That learning however, may be enhanced by high quality feedback. Students are less likely to act on poor quality feedback. Students’ issues with feedback include the time it takes to receive feedback after submitting the work, understanding the feedback that has been given – this could be the language used, the handwriting, not understanding the abbreviated shorthand, or the grade. Summary sheet comments should be explicit enough for the student to act on them intelligently. For example, does a student know what ‘your spelling needs some attention’ or ‘much of this work was irrelevant’ mean? Feedback should also be about feed forward - what the student can do next time to improve performance.

6. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoint projects Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Ensure feedback is related to the assessment criteriaOnline Testing/ Written Feedback Tools Provide feedback in advance of the assignment – FAQs, common errorsScreen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording Provide tutorial activities with feedbackCollaboration Tools Feedback built into online testsOnline Testing/ Collaboration Tools Generic feedback to whole group: following an assignment or as part of in- class activities Screen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording Feedback 24-48 hours after hand in - skim, say 10% of work handed in, identify common strengths and weaknesses and feed these back to the class either in the next lecture or posting on to QOL Online Submissions/ Screen Recording Tools/ Sound Recording Select model answers as a feedback source and give feedback to the whole group via discussion board Screen Recording Tools/ Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools Ask students to indicate the areas where they would like feedbackWritten Feedback Tools Ask students to self-assess their work and provide feedback on this as well as the assessment Written Feedback Tools/ Multimedia Authoring Tools/ Online Testing/ Portfolio Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools

7. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Provide opportunities to act on feedback Staff often raise the issue that students do not use the feedback given. There are a number of reasons why this might be including: students’ perception of feedback coming too late the module is over, and/or the mark achieved is acceptable to them. Students need to use both formative and summative feedback as a means of improving their future performance. Other than via the next piece of assessed work, do you provide students with opportunities to internalise and act on the feedback given? Equally, students will not be able to action the feedback if they do not understand it – this usually comes down to the terminology used by the assessor.

8. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Provide feedback on a draft – this could be tutor feedback or it could be peer feedback which engages the students with the assessment criteria and the ‘art of marking’ Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Portfolio Tools Withhold the mark until the student has produced an action plan for the future work (360 0 feedback) Written Feedback Tools As part of personal tutoring, require students to produce an action plan at the beginning of the new semester/year on how they will address the feedback given in the previous semester/year Portfolio Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Collaboration Tools Regular activities throughout module that receive feedback – expect this feedback to be incorporated Portfolio Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Collaboration Tools/ Multimedia Authoring Tools/ Online Submission/ Online Testing Have one assignment come in early which is marked and returned to the students in time for them to use the feedback in the second assignment Online Submission/ Written Feedback Tools/ Collaboration Tools Ensure that students understand the feedback providedOnline Testing/ Collaboration Tools/ Interactive Voting/ Lecture Participation

9. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning What types of dialogue do you have with your students regarding feedback? What types of dialogue do you encourage students to have with their peers? Dialogue between students and between staff and students plays an important role in student success. Students need to engage in dialogue around feedback. Large first year classes make one-to-one interaction between staff and students difficult, but meaningful dialogue can take place between students.

10. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Structure group projects so that students discuss the criteria and standards expected at the start and then review progress against the criteria Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Portfolio Tools Minute papers with questions covering the session – results used at the beginning of the next session Interactive Voting/ Lecture Participation/ Online Submission Use group work or support learning groups and learning communitiesCollaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Portfolio Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Students set task(s) for each otherCollaboration Tools/ Online Testing Students set MCQ(s) with feedback to correct and incorrect answersOnline Testing/ Interactive Voting/ Lecture Participation/ Peer to Peer Tools Students discuss the written feedback they have been given with their peers and suggest strategies for future improvement Collaboration Tools Students bring brief pieces of work to tutorials which are then reviewed by a peer – what is good, what is less good and how can it be improved? Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Students peer ‘mark’ or peer review a draft which is then modified in response to the feedback provided Collaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools

11. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Development of self-assessment and reflection How are students developing graduate skills? Do your students recognise their strengths and weaknesses? If students are to acquire the skills of regulating their own learning and development they need to be able to self-assess their work. Providing students with opportunities to engage with self-assessment in a formal manner is likely to develop more autonomous learners and lead to greater engagement with criteria and standards.

12. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Ask students to complete a self-assessment proforma (using the assessment criteria) – this may include an estimate of the mark (your feedback would identify why there are gaps between the student’s view and yours) Online Testing/ Written Feedback Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Ask students to indicate the parts of their work which they feel are strengths and weaknesses Collaboration Tools/ Portfolio Tools A combination of the two aboveSee above Students requesting assistance/feedback on particular aspects (this could be included with the above also) Collaboration Tools/ Portfolio Tools Peer assessment provides an opportunity for students to engage with the criteria and standards on someone else’s work and then apply that to their own Written Feedback Tools/ Collaboration Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Confidence-based marking for MCQs – students have to rate how confident they are that their chosen answer is correct on a scale of 1-3. The mark is weighted according to their confidence level Online Testing Students keep a reflective journal or portfolio through the coursePortfolio Tools Online objective tests and quizzes for self-testingOnline Testing Students include how they have responded to earlier feedbackCollaboration Tools/ Portfolio Tools

13. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Give choice of topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing of assessments Are there opportunities for your students to choose the topic of their assessment? Does the class negotiate and agree deadlines? Does the class have the opportunity to discuss and have input to the assessment criteria? Being able to manage and prioritise work is a key graduate skill. Providing students with opportunities to make decisions about which topic to do, when to hand work in, the weighting of an assessment or part of it, enables them to practise this skill. For example, students often have a choice of topic, or some online testing designs allow students to choose when to take a test during a specified period.

14. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Choice of essay titles and/or negotiated titles Choice of topic for extended essay or project/dissertation Negotiated submission dates Students generate criteria for assessmentCollaboration Tools/ Interactive Voting/ Lecture Participation Students provide additional criteria for assessmentCollaboration Tools Students choose the weighting for parts of an assessmentCollaboration Tools/ Interactive Voting/ Lecture Participation Students set their own schedulePortfolio Tools

15. Adapted from REAP and the Viewpoints Project Create learning communities How do your students learn together? What opportunities are there for student interaction in your courses within and beyond the classroom? Feeling part of a group is important for success at University. This includes opportunities to interact with staff outside the classroom as well as interaction with other students. Social interaction is more difficult when class sizes are large; students live at home or go home regularly and have increasing work commitments outside University. Students also benefit from supporting each other in their academic study through the development of learning communities. Assessment and feedback practices can help to engender social integration and the development of learning communities.

16. Some ways to do this...Technologies to consider... Group tasksCollaboration Tools Peer review of a draft or final assignmentWritten Feedback Tools/ Collaboration Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools Group discussion/task around criteria and standardsCollaboration Tools/ Written Feedback Tools Course social space e.g. learning caféCollaboration Tools Course social activitiesCollaboration Tools Personal tutor groupsCollaboration Tools Peer mentoringCollaboration Tools/ Peer to Peer Tools