Senate

Senate

Subject: Feedback to students on their work

Origin: Learning and Teaching Committee 15 February 2007 (unconfirmed minutes)

Senate is invited to approved the recommendations set out under (i) – (vii) below, concerning feedback to students on their work, while noting that the PDQ Team has been asked to undertake further work on aspects of this issue.

Learning and Teaching Committee considered proposals from the Programme Development and Quality Team which followed from an investigation carried out by Derek Blease and Karen Roxborough. It was noted that the investigation had raised concerns about variability in the quality and quantity of feedback both within and between departments.

The Committee was supportive of the recommendations but at the same time considered it important not to confine attention to feedback on assessed work. It was vital that, across the institution, feedback was interpreted more broadly and seen as a means of helping students to enhance their learning and raise their standards of performance. It was felt that students too often avoided work that did not contribute to the module mark.

It was agreed to invite the PDQ Team to give further consideration to the issue of feedback in this broader context.

It was recommended:

(i) That the University Coursework Code of Practice, which currently required that Programme Handbooks

‘state the form of feedback that students can expect and that this information shall also be given to students when assignments are set’,

should in addition encourage departments to incorporate the following extract or similar into their wording:

‘The feedback should enable students to understand the reasons for the mark/grade given and should include constructive comments on the strengths and weaknesses of their work.’

(ii) That departments be encouraged to raise the profile of feedback on coursework in departmental documentation by (a) emphasising to tutors the need to be consistent in complying with the University’s minimum requirements in every case, and (b) helping students to see feedback as a part of their learning experience just as important as the teaching and assessment.

(iii) That in the case of modules assessed entirely by examination, departments be required to provide some form of generic feedback to students on the examination; and encouraged to provide the same sort of feedback in the case of modules where 50% or more of the module mark is accounted for by examination.

(iv) That LSU consider, in collaboration with course reps and student committees in departments, ways in which they might jointly communicate their concerns to departments and help students to make better use of feedback to enhance their learning; and, conversely, convey to students the importance of collecting work that academic staff had taken the trouble to mark and comment on.

(v) That question 16 on the External Examiners’ report form be amended to read: ‘Was the standard of marking and feedback in assessed coursework satisfactory?’

(vi) That documentation for programme review be amended (a) to ensure that the information requested on student feedback was to a specific standard (to be agreed in consultation with the AD(T)s), and (b) to include a requirement for departments to outline their strategies for ensuring that individual staff comply with the University’s minimum requirements on feedback to students.

(vii) That departments be required to include a question about the quality of feedback in the ‘individual tutor’ section of the OMR Module Feedback Forms.

It was noted in the case of recommendation (iii) above, that the feedback should ideally be made available in parallel with the module marks, particularly for S.1 modules. One way of providing the feedback would be via the Learn/VLE server. The feedback could also provide helpful guidance to the students in the year below and this should be borne in mind in the case of S.2 modules in the final year.

Author – Robert Bowyer

Date – February 2007