Briefing Paper

2

The Ten Principles of Good Feedback Practice

Feedback… 1. Should be for learning, not just of

learning

Feedback should be primarily used as a

learning tool and therefore positioned for

learning rather than as a measure of

learning.

2. Should be a continuous process

Rather than a one-off event after

assessment, feedback should be part of

continuous guided learning and an integral

part of the learning experience.

3. Should be timely

Feedback should be provided in a timely

manner, allowing students to apply it to

future learning and assessments. This

timeframe needs to be communicated to

students.

4. Should relate to clear criteria

Objectives for assessment and grade

criteria need to be clearly communicated to,

and fully understood by, students.

Subsequent feedback should be provided

primarily in relation to this.

5. Should be constructive

If feedback is to be constructive it needs to

be concise, focused and meaningful to feed-

forward, highlighting what is going well and

what can be improved.

6. Should be legible and clear

Feedback should be written in plain

language so it can be easily understood by

all students, enabling them to engage with

it and support future learning.

7. Should be provided on exams

Exams make up a high proportion of

assessment and students should receive

feedback on how well they did and how

they could improve for the next time.

8. Should include self-assessment and

peer-to-peer feedback

Feedback from peers and self-assessment

practices can play a powerful role in

learning by encouraging reassessment of

personal beliefs and interpretations.

9. Should be accessible to all students

Not all students are full-time, campus

based and so universities should utilise

different technologies to ensure all students

have easy access to their feedback.

10. Should be flexible and suited to

students’ needs

Students learn in different ways and

therefore feedback is not ‘one size fits all’.

Within reason students should be able to

request feedback in various formats

depending on their needs.

3

Contents Page

Introduction [4]

The Value of Good Assessment Feedback [5]

Student Experience and Opinion [6]

Common Complaints about Assessment Feedback [11]

The Ten Principles of Good Feedback Practice [13]

Bibliography [23]

4

Introduction

The release of the 2008 National Student Survey (NSS) results once again highlights feedback

on assessment as a key concern for students. Regardless of institution, background or course,

students were significantly less satisfied about the feedback that they received than their

overall learning experience. This follows similar levels of discontentment that has arisen in the

Survey since it started in 2005, indicating that the issue is both pervasive and continuous.

NUS have conducted more detailed research as part of our Student Experience Report that

identifies how long it takes for students to receive feedback and how useful it was for

improving their learning. The NUS Student Experience Report – feedback on assessment,

showed that only 25% of people interviewed received individual verbal feedback, however this

ranks as one of the most popular methods, with 72% of people interviewed saying that they

would like to receive feedback in this way. The report also showed that 25% of students

regularly had to wait more than five weeks to receive feedback. However, the problem is not

simply confined to undergraduates, research by the Higher Education Academy (HEA), shows

taught postgraduate students share similar experiences too.

This will not come as a surprise to many and poorly applied feedback mechanisms are, quite

rightly, a huge concern as the fail to engage the student with either their current or future

learning. In fact, when poorly managed it can actually serve to de-motivate and hinder

learning. Good feedback on the other hand can actively support learning by the individual,

therefore we should be moving to a situation where feedback is not just of learning, but also

for learning – from feedback to feed-forward.

The NSS has successfully brought attention to this problem with hard statistical evidence

reinforced by NUS’ own research. We therefore believe that it is important to focus on this

issue. This briefing along with the campaign toolkit should enable students’ unions to take real

action on this issue, and the ten principles provide students’ unions with a framework to fight

to improve the feedback practices within their institution.

Aaron Porter

Vice President (Higher Education)

aaron.porter@nus.org.uk

5

The Value of Good Assessment Feedback

The current situation of assessment feedback is failing the needs of students, not only is it

found to be frequently inadequate, but in some cases it is actually hindering learning

altogether. So why is this such a concern? What is the value of good assessment feedback?

Feedback in its commonest form supports summative assessment. Often provided in

the form of a grade or a percentage mark and usually at the end of a course or a

period of learning, this is used as an evaluative tool to represent an assigned standard

of achievement. However, feedback can take a wide variety of forms and other

manifestations constitute fundamental components of the learning process, rather

than simply a reflection of achievement. Common agreement concludes that effective

feedback can:

Promote an individual’s learning journey and encourage greater achievement.

Enable students to reflect and develop on their strengths and weaknesses.

Foster greater levels of self-esteem and motivation which in turn can result in greater

progress.

Enable tutors to realign their teaching content and teaching methods in response to

learners needs.

Encourage a greater and more effective dialogue between teachers and students.

Develop core skills around self-assessment and peer to peer evaluation.

If feedback can have all these important uses and roles, what are the experiences of the

students? How do different students feel about this? The next section will look in greater detail

about recent research that has explored this area and shed light on the views of those who

know best, the students themselves.

6

Student Experience and Opinion

There has been a range of research on student experience and student opinion on feedback

mechanisms. The National Student Survey explores the academic experiences of third year

full-time and fourth year part-time students. As table 1 indicates, the recent 2008 survey, as

well as previous years surveys, have found students experiences to be significantly less

positive in the area of assessment and feedback compared to the other six areas of quality of

teaching, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, personal

development and overall satisfaction.

However, as table 2 highlights, further exploration of the figures indicates how questions on

feedback (questions 7 – 9) fare far worse when separated from those on assessment

(questions 5 – 6).

Table 1: Comparison of 2007 and 2008 average percentage results for the six NSS

question areas plus an average of feedback questions.

2007 2008

% National Satisfaction

The teaching on my course 82 83

Assessment and feedback 62 64

Academic support 71 73

Organisation and management 71 73

Learning resources 80 81

Personal development 77 78

Overall satisfaction 81 82

Average of Feedback (Q 7-9) 54 57

7

Table 2: Comparison of 2007 and 2008 average percentage results for the three NSS

feedback questions.

Worryingly the NSS shows us that different students have different experiences of feedback,

and current assessment feedback provisions are resulting in varying levels of satisfaction

amongst various groups of students. As table 3 indicates, statistics from the 2007 NSS show

students who defined their ethnicity as ‘Asian’ or ‘other’ are 6% less satisfied with feedback

and assessment than their peers who defined themselves as ‘white’. In addition, dyslexic

students where 5.7% less satisfied with feedback than those with no declared disability (as

shown in table 4).1

If equality and fairness is meant to lie at the heart of every aspect of the student experience,

from admissions right through to assessment then these are indeed worrying figures which

demand further research and exploration.

Table 3: Percentage agreement for feedback and assessment broken down by

ethnicity.

1 Hefce, The National Student Survey (2008).

2007 2008

% National Satisfaction

Q7 - Feedback on my work has been

prompt. 53 56

Q8 - I have received detailed comments on

my work. 58 61

Q9 - Feedback on my work has helped me

clarify things I did not understand. 53 56

Q7-9 Average 54 57

% National Satisfaction

White 72.4

Black 71.4

Asian 66.3

Mixed 68.8

Other 66.3

Not known 71.5

8

Table 4: Percentage satisfaction of feedback and assessment for students with

declared disability.

The NUS Student Experience Report – feedback on assessment, has explored this area in

greater detail. It highlighted (table 5 below) that the most common form of feedback received

by students was through written marks and grades (90%) and through written comments

(80%). However, only 25% said they received verbal feedback while 72% expressed a

preference for this mode. This highlights a profound disconnect between preferences for

feedback and the realities of receiving it.2

Table 5: The disconnect between feedback preferences and common modes of

delivery

The NUS Student Experience Report also shows that the majority of students, 55%, receive

feedback within four weeks, however 25% of respondents said that it takes five weeks or more

to receive feedback from coursework. In addition, variability appears to be a significant issue,

as 18% of respondents answered that it was impossible to say as it varies so much. Those

people that said that timing did not meet their expectation were then asked how long they

would expect it to take to receive feedback on their coursework. As can be seen in chart 1

below, the expectations are heavily skewed towards feedback being received sooner, with the

majority, 57% expecting feedback within 1-2 weeks.

2 Report on student feedback by NUS and HSBC (2008).

% National Satisfaction

None 71.7

Dyslexia 66.0

Other 72.4

Not known 72.3

Q30 How do you receive

feedback on your

coursework?

Q32 How would you

like to receive feedback

on your coursework?

Written grades/ marks 90% 81%

Written comments 85% 72%

Verbal feedback provided in

an individual meeting with

the tutor/lecturer who set

the work

25% 72%

9

Q33 Base: All students (2398), male students (1013), female students (1383)

Q35 Base: All students (734), male students (279), female students (454)

Chart 1: Length of time taken to receive feedback and expectations

Research by the Higher Education Academy’s taught postgraduate student experience survey

(2008) showed that this problem is wider than simply undergraduate students. It reported

significant dissatisfaction around feedback amongst these students too.3

Results included:

44% agreed and 33% disagreed that they had received continuous feedback on

progress. Part-time students in particularly were negative about this aspect (-6%).

A further 33% disagreed that they had received prompt feedback.

Over one third did not agree that their feedback was helpful.

This paints a picture where students across the sector consider their feedback mechanisms to

be deficit. However, what is most worrying is that some students are suffering from this to a

greater degree and this brings to the forefront issues around equality and access.

3 HEA, Postgraduate survey (2008)

5%

18%

32%

18%

7%

5%

57%

37%

1%

Less than a week

One to two

weeks

Three to four

weeks

Five to six weeks

Seven weeks or

more

Q33 How long on average does it take for you to receive feedback on your coursework?

Q35 How long would you reasonably expect it to take to receivefeedback on your coursework?

10

The University and College Union (UCU) has highlighted that the under-funded expansion has

resulted in much larger class sizes, which therefore impacts on the ability of staff to devote

proper time to individual students’ academic care. UCU believes that there needs to be serious

investment in higher education to reduce current student: staff ratios. This under-funded

expansion has meant reductions in students’ contact time with staff. Because of funding

constraints and pressures on staff to publish and bring in research grants, most universities

have reduced formal teaching hours.

UCU have also highlighted that under-funding means institutions are increasingly reliant on the

use of casual, hourly-paid lecturing staff. Research shows that many of the estimated 70,000

hourly-paid lecturers lack basic access to facilities (desk space, computers, admin support,

printing & photocopying), let alone access to staff development and proper terms and

conditions of employment, this hourly-paid staff also impacts on the ability to devote sufficient

resources to feedback.

We know that many students have poor experiences of feedback, but what are these

experiences. What makes a poor experience of feedback? What are the common complaints of

feedback? We turn to this question in the next section.

11

Common Complaints about Assessment Feedback

Whilst some experiences of assessment feedback can be transformative and motivating, others

can confuse and distress.4 There are numerous reasons influencing this and five common

criticisms worth highlighting are:

Ambiguity - Comments such as ‘poor effort’ and ‘could do better’ are examples of

indistinct feedback that fail to offer anything substantive about where improvements

could be made and learning enhanced. If feedback is vague this can lead to students

having no real understanding of where they went wrong and how they should move

forward. This ultimately leaves the assessment meaningless as the student is unable

to apply their learning to their next project. 5

Lateness - Students need time to reflect on comments made in feedback for them to

improve the standard of their work and develop their learning through the duration of

the course. Returning work late, in some cases after the module has been completed,

greatly diminishes the learning experience. Research in 2000 highlighted that this is

a common occurrence with 59% of respondents feeling that their feedback was

received ‘too late to be useful’.6

Miscommunication - If feedback takes the form of a one-way transmission of

opinion from the tutor to the student, in a feedback sheet for instance, it leaves little

room to ensure the student actually understands what the tutor is trying to

communicate. Another frequent complaint is that handwritten feedback is illegible,

rendering it almost useless.

Negativity - Overly critical comments offering no constructive insight can have a

hugely negative impact on a student’s progression. Not only does this fail to offer

anything beneficial in terms of progression it can also, particularly when there is no

option of resubmission, result in a detrimental effect to the student’s self esteem.

Uncertainty - It is widely agreed that, “students can only achieve a learning goal if

they understand that goal, assume some ownership of it, and can assess progress”.7

It is not uncommon for teachers and students to unintentionally have differing

interpretations of the goals and criteria of an assignment. This lack of clarity results

4 T. Lillis and J. Turner, “Student writing in higher education: contemporary confusion, traditional concerns”, Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 6, no.1 (2001), 57-68 5 Dr Mark Huxham, “Fast and effective feedback: are model answers the answer?” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 32, no.6 (2007), 602 6 J. Hartley and K. Chesworth, “Qualitative and quantitative methods in research on easy writing: no one way,” Journal of Further and Higher Education 24, (2000) 7 Dr David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative Assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice,” available from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/assessment/senlef/principles

12

in confusion and misinterpretation that ultimately leaves the student penalised for

possessing a different outlook on an assignment than the tutor.

We now know why effective feedback is positive for learning, we also know that many

students find it lets their learning down, and we are familiar with the common complaints of

feedback. In that case what needs to be done? What does a transparent feedback system that

tests and stretches students’ capacities whilst also supporting and encouraging them look like?

13

The Ten Principles of Good Feedback Practice

These ten principles of good feedback practice were developed through various focus groups,

student and academic networks, NUS websites, sessions at NUS summer training and

academic research and papers. It has explored in depth the opinions and experiences of

current students around feedback mechanisms.

NUS believes that feedback…

1. Should be for learning, not just of learning

Feedback should be primarily used as a learning tool and therefore positioned for learning

rather than as a measure of learning.

We believe that assessment feedback should be at the heart of the learning process. Feedback

is often given at the end of an assignment to simply record a student’s achievement. This

approach fails to utilise it as a learning tool and therefore does not provide any developmental

advice which will allow a student to progress. The use of assessment for learning techniques,

or formative assessment, encourages this as it involves the completion of tasks whereby the

assessment itself, and subsequent feedback is a learning tool.

Ideally feedback should only consist of constructive comments with marks or grades,

particularly any that count towards a summative end of course assessment released after the

comments have been acted upon. We have seen that an over reliance on marks and grades

can impede learning as students may come to focus too much emphasis on ‘performance

goals’ rather than ‘learning goals’. Feedback where the grade replaces constructive comments

has been shown to have a “negative effect on the self-esteem on low ability students.”8

2. Should be a continuous process

Rather than a one-off event after assessment, feedback should be part of continuous guided

learning and an integral part of the learning experience.

Feedback should allow a student to reflect and develop their learning for the purpose of

greater achievement. Therefore we believe that feedback needs to be an integral part of the

learning experience not just a one-off exercise that assesses the student. Tutors should give

“advice on how to improve the next element of the work, so that adjustments can be made in

an ongoing manner.”9

8 Dr D. Nicol and D. Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative” 9 Sally Brown, “Feedback and Feed-Forward,” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin, (2007)

14

Guided learning can foster greater understanding of topic areas. Assessment practices need to

be designed to allow students to receive feedback on their progress which they can use to aid

their progression. More often than not, simple mistakes, particularly concerning referencing,

can be tackled if a student’s progression is under constant feedback.

3. Should be timely

Feedback should be provided in a timely manner, allowing students to apply it to future

learning and assessments. This timeframe needs to be communicated to students.

A timely turnover in feedback is essential if a student is to fully understand the guidance

offered and how they are able to apply this to future learning and assessments. If feedback is

returned in an untimely fashion, particularly after submission dates of subsequent

assignments, students are prevented from fully developing and progressing in their learning.

While the differing nature of individual courses and programmes of study means no ideal

length of time can be ascribed to all feedback, it should always be returned in a manner that

will allow it to impact on future learning and future assessments. It is important that students

are aware of how long to expect the turnaround to be so they have realistic expectations. If

this is not done it might result in unnecessary disappointment and dissatisfaction.

However, it is important that timeliness is not used as a blunt measure of performance. Its

role is more subtle. If points 1 and 2 are fully implemented and feedback made an integral part

of learning, then timeliness is a natural result.

Case study: Heriot-Watt University Students' Association

Heriot-Watt University Students’ Association used the results of the NSS to highlight poor

satisfaction with feedback among students. They ran a postcard campaign entitled, “Is this all

your work is worth? Feedback Campaign,” which looked to highlight best and worst practice in

terms of feedback within the institution. They had an overwhelming response to the campaign

with students asking that exam scripts be returned with feedback included. Students used

stickers to request this when submitting their script. The University has now agreed to return

exam scripts across the board and are now using the feedback policy composed by the Union.

In addition, the campaign was recognised nationally and won the students’ association an NUS

Award for “Campaign of the Year”.

15

4. Should relate to clear criteria

Objectives for assessment and grade criteria need to be clearly communicated to, and fully

understood by, students. Subsequent feedback should be provided primarily in relation to this.

Recent research on assessment feedback has indicated that it is common that tutors and

students have differing impressions about what is expected from assessments and how a

student can achieve a high mark. These differences can arise when standards are based or

interpreted on tacit knowledge and assumptions, these often being difficult to articulate and

communicate. Therefore it is crucial that these issues are overcome and there is a clear and

common understanding between staff and students about the meanings behind the criteria.

Students can easily misinterpret what they are being told and, “if students do not share their

tutor’s conception of assessment goals then the feedback information is unlikely to connect.”10

This needs to be achieved at the beginning of the course, ideally alongside exemplars of good

and poor performance. This gives students a greater understanding of how to approach an

assignment and gives them the opportunity to speak to their peers or tutor if they have any

confusion over the set objectives.

10 Dr D. Nicol and D. Macfarlane-Dick, “Rethinking Formative”

Examples from Heriot Watt of poor feedback:

“All I get is a grade next to my matriculation number without any indication on how I'm

doing"

"I don't tend to get any feedback during term time, so by the time it comes to an exam, I

don't know how well I know the material"

"Getting an essay back where the only comment was 'use a bigger text size' nothing on

how to improve my grade"

"It doesn't matter what kind of work it is, most of the time it's a grade and you can't

even tell if someone's actually bothered to read it..."

"Feedback can range from exceptional personalized responses to a letter e.g. 'B', how

useless is that?!"

16

It is important that the subsequent feedback is provided primarily in relation to the agreed and

fully understood criteria and no other. It also needs to be clearly communicated to the student

what they did well against the assessment criteria and what they did less well. While common

problems such as spelling or grammar can be mentioned in feedback it should not be to the

exclusion of comments on the assessment criteria. This would impede a students learning on

that particular topic.

There should also be lucid guidelines around issues such as plagiarism, ideally this would be

addressed in the first year and special emphases given to ensuring international students were

up to speed.

5. Should be constructive

If feedback is to be constructive it needs to be concise, focused and meaningful to feed-

forward, highlighting what is going well and what can be improved.

Vague comments such as ‘could do better’, without explaining how they could actually do so,

are not productive forms of feedback. Feedback needs to be concise, focused and meaningful if

it is going to be constructive for students.

It is also important that comments are not overly negative. This can serve to damage

motivation and self-esteem while doing little to help actual learning. If students come to fear

what feedback they could receive it may prevent them from picking up their feedback and

speaking directly to the tutor.

Feedback should be designed with a view to feed-forward, encouraging progress through

constructive criticism. To do this the feedback should highlight both what went well in the work

and prioritise what needs to be improved to do better next time.

Case study: Northumbria University Students’ Union

In the 2007 NSS, Northumbria students were vocal in their dissatisfaction of assessment and

feedback, particularly in the area of ‘timeliness’ where only 49% of students surveyed were

satisfied. This discontent was further exemplified with two-thirds of students voting to make

this issue their priority campaign for the year in a Students’ Union referendum.

17

6. Should be legible and clear

Feedback should be written in plain language so it can be easily understood by all students,

enabling them to engage with it and support future learning.

Clear communication of feedback is essential to ensure that a student fully understands and is

able to act on the guidance offered. Feedback is not just about communicating the message it

is also about making sure the message has been received, understood and the student has a

clear idea of how to apply this to further learning. Results from the NSS have shown that

students do not feel that feedback has helped to clarify things that they did not understand.

The campaign had four clear goals, all of which were fully or partially met. These involved

having a statement of agreed standards for assessment and feedback across the

institution, including a 21 day turn around for feedback. This was achieved with the

support of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and Associate Deans from

across the University’s nine Schools, with a number of Schools taking the opportunity to

revise extensively how feedback is relayed.

Students were involved in the campaign at every stage, with School Reps surveying their

peers on their expectations on assessment feedback and presenting the findings to School

Learning and Teaching Committees, and driving the debate on what makes good feedback

through student-led forums. At the end of the year, the Students’ Union teamed up with

Academic Registry in the University to send a ‘Feedback, Feed Forward’ leaflet to all first

year students receiving end-of-year grades in order to promote positive approaches to

using feedback.

The campaign aimed to see a 5% improvement in the NSS score for Assessment and

Feedback. The result was a staggering 9% rise, placing Northumbria in the top quartile in

this category and with individual subject areas jumping by as much as 30%.

Lisa Burton, Vice President Academic Affairs at Northumbria Students’ Union,

said:

“We are ecstatic about the results – they prove that our campaign delivered the goods

where it matters, in real improvements in student satisfaction and in practices in

assessment feedback. This is no time for complacency, however. A number of divisions

are yet to see these kinds of improvements, and we remain committed to the belief that

only by sharing best practice between subjects and by introducing minimum standards

across the board, can we reach a point where every Northumbria student is satisfied with

their assessment feedback.”

18

We believe that universities need look at ways to clarify written feedback and also explore

ways in which feedback can be communicated in other forms to aid the development of

students.

When feedback is written, it should be done so in language that can be understood by all

students. There should be little use of jargon or acronyms that some students may struggle to

understand. This is of particular importance for students whose first language may not be

English. A common complaint of feedback is that hand-writing can often be illegible. Some

students do misinterpret comments and suggestions and fail to understand potentially valuable

points.

Institutions need to look at ways to make feedback clearer and in doing so need to explore

reducing the emphasis on written feedback by embracing other methods.

7. Should be provided on exams

Exams make up a high proportion of assessment and students should receive feedback on how

well they did and how they could improve for the next time.

Exams make up a high proportion of assessment in higher education and students invest a lot

of time in their completion. As such they should receive feedback on how well they did and

importantly, how they could improve for the next time.

Under the Freedom of information Act (2000) students have a right to access examiners

comments on their scripts. For institutions to avoid being inundated with requests, they

should follow the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) good practise and be ‘open,

transparent and accountable’, giving students confidence that their examination processes are

fair and consistent.11

8. Should include self-assessment and peer-to-peer feedback

Feedback from peers and self-assessment practices can play a powerful role in learning by

encouraging reassessment of personal beliefs and interpretations.

Enabling students to assess their own learning or other students’ learning can be a powerful

aid to development and should help foster mutual progression. When done correctly, feedback

from peers and self-assessment practices can positively challenge students by encouraging

them to reassess their knowledge and beliefs, therefore playing a powerful role in learning.

11 Information source:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/individuals'_rights_of_acc

ess_to_examination_records.pdf

19

This is already common practice on many arts based courses, but less so for other subject

areas.

Students should be encouraged to engage more with each other to develop mutual

understanding and help collective progression. This type of feedback creates a dialogue, which

means that the student not only receives the initial feedback information, but also has the

opportunity to engage with a discussion about that feedback. It exposes students to

alternative perspectives and ideas that they themselves may not have considered and allows

them to discuss their interpretation of the learning objectives and look at how they approached

the assignment compared to others.

Students need to be encouraged to take a greater role in shaping their own learning

experience. “If you want to improve you need to be able to judge for yourself the quality of

what you are doing.”12 Institutions need to facilitate self-assessment allowing students to

reflect on their progression and to set realistic learning goals.

9. Should be accessible to all students

Not all students are full-time, campus based and so universities should utilise different

technologies to ensure all students have easy access to their feedback.

The needs of all students should to be taken into account when devising feedback

mechanisms. The make-up of students in higher education has changed drastically over the

last decade. The proportion of students who are full time campus-based is decreasing, while

there is a corresponding increase of those working full-time/studying part-time. There has also

been a rise in students who have disabilities or are primary carers. Therefore the common

requirement of students to physically pick up written feedback or visit a tutor within an allotted

timeframe is not always realistic.

Indeed, research from the Higher Education Academy suggests that a high number of students

are not collecting their feedback at all. To alleviate this situation more flexible mechanisms

through which to disseminate feedback should be explored. This could be provision via email

or through online discussions. It is essential that feedback practices serve the needs of all

students, not just those whose needs are easily met within current common structures.

10. Should be flexible and suited to students’ needs

Students learn in different ways and therefore feedback is not ‘one size fits all’. Within reason

students should be able to request feedback in various formats depending on their needs.

12 Nick Brown, “Self-assessment – more effective than tutor feedback?” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin (2007)

20

Different students learn in different ways and no feedback can be ‘one size fits all’. “All

students are different but the assessment for every student tends to be the same.”13 One

student might benefit more from receiving a written script while another would get most out of

a peer review session. Within reason students should have the opportunity to receive

feedback in ways that would be most productive to their learning. This would be optimum in an

environment where there was positive and frequent peer to tutor dialogue.

13 Peter Goodhew, “Can we set a fair question?,” Centre for Bioscience Bulletin (2007)

Case study: Edinburgh University Students’ Association

The ‘Just a Number Campaign’ aimed to get information on where good and bad feedback

practices where happening so that that union could focus efforts on getting the University

to improve feedback. The NSS in 2006 and 2007 had shown that this is something that

final year students did care about. It looked at getting students to be active and engaged

in feedback so that they could apply it to their future learning and felt comfortable opening

a dialogue with tutors and talk freely about the feedback they wanted.

The University responded to the NSS results by organising top-level meetings dedicated to

the issue of feedback. Heads of School have met to discuss how to tackle the problem. The

union kept up pressure to ensure that this translated into actual change in students’

experiences on their courses by highlighting good and bad practice across the University.

Guy Bromley Vice-President Academic Affairs of the Edinburgh University

Students' Association said in a press release on the issue:

"Feedback is absolutely crucial to learning. If you don't tell a student how to improve, how

can you expect them to get better? Edinburgh is supposed to be one of the top universities

in the world. A substantial number of the University's departments are the worst in the UK

for feedback. This is disgraceful."

Examples of poor feedback from Edinburgh University students

“Don't do what I told you to do a week ago (and what you've spent the last week doing).

start again from the beginning."

"Oh no, that is all wrong."

21

"You really have chosen the wrong career."

“Last year, we got a short illegible paragraph telling us what was wrong with out essays

and what we should have done better, not HOW to do it better - and this is something that

is replicated in many courses.”

Examples of good feedback from Edinburgh University students

“After sitting an online mid-semester test the answers we got wrong were displayed with

detailed information about why they were wrong and in some cases how to get to the

correct answer.”

“I got a really good feedback on the essay. It consisted all the criteria with marks given

separately. So that I knew that I put good headings and that I need to improve i.e. my

bibliography.”

“Our portfolio reports are returned to us with a grading sheet, markers comments and the

original script with markers feedback on.”

“For each report we submit in Psychology, we receive a detailed sheet telling us what the

weak points are regarding our essay and some points to work on for our next submission.”

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Conclusion: building a consensus

Feedback is a fundamental part of the learning process. It enables students to develop, shape

their learning and foster a greater self esteem. However, the National Student Survey and

NUS’ own Student Experience Report have clearly shown that poor assessment feedback

procedures are a huge worry for students and are having a negative impact on learning.

Complaints of ambiguity, lateness and negativity are commonplace in most university

departments and the majority of students, 57%, are not satisfied with the standard of

feedback they are receiving. We are also seeing a stark variation in satisfaction with many

disabled and minority ethnic students feeling they receive a lower standard of assessment

feedback than their peers.

Institutions are beginning to wake up to the importance of feedback and this issue is now

firmly on the agenda. The challenge is to build a consensus between the students’ union and

institution in order to create a fairer, coherent and sensible policy on assessment feedback.

Only by building a consensus on this issue can we successfully improve the situation for all

types of students. With NUS’ Ten Principles of Good Feedback Practice, as well as our

accompanying Campaign Toolkit, unions across the country can argue for improvements in this

long neglected area, and win for their students on a matter that is so at the heart of learning.

23

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