Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Dai Hounsell The University of Edinburgh Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION Strategic priorities for enhancing feedback

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION Strategic priorities for enhancing feedback

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York The University of Edinburgh Feedback Standards and Guiding Principles h.Feedback can only work well when it is a joint and shared responsibility. The onus is on teaching staff to: to design courses in ways that enable students to get and to act on feedback to inform students when, where and how feedback will be provided in each course for which they are responsible to provide feedback which is prompt, informative and helpful, within the resources available to them The onus is on students to: to familiarise themselves with when, where and how feedback is provided in each of their courses to develop their understanding of assessment expectations, criteria and standards in their chose degree programme to collect and study the feedback provided, and grasp opportunities to put it to good use DRAF T

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION The Enhancing Feedback Website

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION The Enhancing Feedback Website

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION Overview of Keynote I. Fundamentals of Feedback in Higher Education What is 'feedback', and why does it matter? What forms does it take ? Who, where and when of feedback Feedback's many purposes II. Feedback Futures Low-cost/high-value feedback Hi[gher]-tech feedback Reconfiguring curricula and assessment for 21st-century feedback

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York The many voices of feedback Link

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK What is 'feedback' and why does it matter? Feedback comprises information, processes, activities or experiences which aim to encapsulate, enable or boost students' learning Feedback can focus on: attainmentwhat a student knows, understands or can do at a given point in time progresswhere a student currently stands in relation to a specified goal, target or level achievementwhat a student has achieved as demonstrated in a completed assignment or task

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK What is 'feedback' and why does it matter? Why feedback matters –learning without feedback is 'blind archery' –feedback is indispensable to effective teaching and assessment, optimising the conditions under which each student can achieve their best

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK What forms does / can feedback take? pro forma written comments exemplars exams guidance feedforward traditional collaboration on-display learning peer audio past questions screencast whole-class clickers in-class assignments cumulative editing using feedback well elective self co- revision e-feedback redrafting reviewing progress criteria dialogue supervision interaction new briefing involvement faster feedback model answers training video online

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK The who, where and when of feedback Sources of feedback –Lecturers, tutors, demonstrators, supervisors, mentors –Fellow-students / peers, a students own reflections –The audience for a seminar or poster presentation, professional practitioners Feedback where and when? formallyinformally in timetabled classes / onlineoutwith timetabled classes / offline intrinsicextrinsic prior to a task or activity during a task or activity after a task or activity

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK What purposes can feedback have?

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FUNDAMENTALS OF FEEDBACK Why does feedback speak in so many voices? 'signature' feedback practices (c.f. Schulman) what's effective or feasible feedback can vary in relation to –the level of study / stage of students' progression in the subject at university level –the task or activity they are engaged in –the wider course setting / teaching-learning environment (and its feedback 'affordances' and constraints) –the purpose(s) of the feedback a rich and expanding palette of possibilities

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FEEDBACK FUTURES Low-cost, high-value feedback Elective feedback Peer and self-generated feedback Pre-emptive guidance [c.f. screencasts] Exemplars Generic or 'whole-class' feedback Off-the-shelf and recycled comments Proxies Collaborative tasks and activities On-display learning

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FEEDBACK FUTURES Hi[gher]-tech feedback Audio / podcast feedback Video feedback Screencasts Online and e-feedback Using clickers (PRS) Recycling written comments Alan J Cann (2007) Podcasting is Dead. Long live Video!, Bioscience Education E-journal, 10-c1 available at c1.aspx

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York FEEDBACK FUTURES Reconfiguring curricula and assessment Multi-media feedback [Designing-in progression] from teacher regulation of learning to shared [co-] and student self- regulation Constructing feedback as a loop or cycle From feedback to feedforward Feedback-rich assignments … Does the future lie in wikis?

Dai Hounsell, University of Edinburgh Feedback Present, Feedback Futures Working with Students to Enhance Feedback The Higher Education Academy, Assessment SIG, 25 March 2010, York From teacher- to co- and student self-regulation If the purpose of higher education is not just to acquire knowledge, skills and understanding in the discipline but also to develop in students the ability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning, then there must be a shift from teacher regulation to learner regulation over the course of an undergraduate degree. To achieve this, students must be actively involved in the processes of assessment, in the different components of the assessment cycle. In other words, assessment is a partnership, which depends as much on what the student does as what we do as teachers. (Nicol, 2008; Nicol, in press)