This mini pre-recorded session introduced students to different ways feedback can be accessed and better utilised and ways staff could leverage feedback to engage students with their feedback.
It is important that staff and students have a shared understanding of the purposes of feedback, to understand marking criteria, reflect and apply feedback and engage critically with feedback so that students can be active participants in feedback process and have a balance of tutor, peer and self assessment.
David Boud famously said that the challenge of feedback is about how to engage with learners in ways that are likely to result in discernible change.
‘Providing comments to students is only a part of any feedback process. Without active engagement from students (eliciting/processing/acting), feedback hasn’t occurred because it can’t influence learning’
In the session we first gave an overview of 5 different technology enhanced feedback approaches, including audio and video feedback, peer review and feedback, AI as a feedback partner, rubrics and online group discussion feedback.
Participants considered the different feedback options and used mentimetre to provide their thoughts.
Audio and Video Feedback
We heard Professor David Boud talking at the 2022 UCL Education Conference discussing the benefit of audio and particularly video feedback and how it can often convey more engaging, nuanced and personalised feedback than written comments.
Students rate the overall quality of video/audio feedback more highly than text based.
Audio and video can complement written comments in order to expand on potentially ambiguous or complex areas, highlight common themes for the whole class or use screencasts to talk through an exemplar, demonstrating areas for improvement.
We also heard a 1 minute sample of audio feedback* and saw how this could include a large quantity of information, without being more time consuming to produce.
* https://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/papers.html
We asked…
Consider: if there any assessment types where you would find this particularly useful?
Response: Where there are diagrams or equations this could be an easier way to give feedback
How to….
- In Turnitin Assignments audio feedback can be directly recorded in the Feedback Studio
- In Moodle Assignments audio feedback cannot be recorded directly but an audio file or link to video can be uploaded.
- In WiseFlow / AssessmentUCL you can attach pre-recorded feedback to a comment or add an audio recording to a standard/ custom rubric or general feedback area.
Peer Review and Feedback
Next we considered how students can provide feedback to their peers, promoting engagement, critical thinking, collaborative learning and helping to see different perspectives.
This also prepares for the real-world skill of giving and receiving feedback.
We asked….
How useful would you find peer review? Participants thought it would be very or quite useful and peer feedback was ranked the preferred mode of feedback of those considered.
How to….
Peer evaluation can be conducted on a variety of ways including simply marking-up or annotating a word document shared via SharePoint or using Moodle discussion forums to give post reviews.
These other platforms also support peer review and feedback:
- UCLReflect is UCL’s blogging platform which allows for Collaboration and Comment
- MyPortfolio is UCL’s eportfolio platform which allows peer and tutor feedback as well as personal reflection.
- IPAC is a group assessment tool used in the Engineering Dept where an element of ‘individual peer assessed contribution’ is combined with the group mark to provide individual marks on group projects or presentations.
AI as a Feedback partner
We then explained how these AI content generators can help to generate personal feedback by comparing work against a range of AI outputs to help develop self-efficacy.
Used as feedback partners they can engage students in critical dialogue with the AI outputs, developing the ability to ask key questions and evaluate responses (for accuracy, quality, ethical values and so on).
The use of AI prepares for future real-world skills in using and prompting an AI ‘partner’.
We watched Professor Mike Sharples discussing some of the benefits of using AI as a feedback partner in his keynote speech at the UCL Education Conference 2023
We asked….
How prepared do you feel for this? Participants thought they were a bit prepared to use AI as a feedback partner but ranked this as their least preferred mode of feedback
Rubrics
We then looked briefly at Rubrics which can provide structured feedback against specific standards or goals and can assist with understanding how performance is being judged with areas for improvement clearly highlighted. Most platforms support standard and customizable rubric, and these may be combined with audio and video feedback.
Most participants had experience of rubric and were happy to receive feedback this way.
Online Group Feedback Discussion Sessions
Finally we considered the use of online Synchronous Group Feedback Discussion Sessions on Zoom or Teams which provide a more interactive experience where clarification can be sought in real time student can contribute to other students’ questions and answers.
We asked….
Could this work with your cohort group? Participants commented that it had potential for rich discussion if all engaged and prepared to contribute.
Useful links
- Technology Enhanced Feedback
- Assessment Matrix
- Engaging with AI in your Education and Assessment
- Professor Mike Sharples’ at the 2023 UCL Education Conference, which explored AI as a part of education.
- Audio & Video Feedback using UCL assessment platforms