Rethinking the students’ role in feedback: improving learning without increasing staff workload
Presenters: Prof David Nicol, Mrs Suzanne McCallum
Is there a way to improve student feedback without increasing staff workload? Could we make this work for large as well as small classes? These are the type of questions we focus on in a bid to increase NSS scores. We spend a lot of time thinking about how we should present feedback to students, but perhaps we are focusing on the wrong question. It is generally agreed that students are a central part of the feedback process, so focusing on what staff do without considering the students’ role will only give a partial picture and will hinder progress.
The session will consider different ways to help students evaluate their own learning and performance and generate their own “internal” feedback, that is tailored to their own needs and stage of development, and that can be much richer and more detailed than the equivalent feedback staff would provide. An example of how this was successfully operationalised in Financial Accounting 1 (using sequences of peer and self-reviews) will be presented, along with hints and tips on how you can incorporate similar activities into your class without a big workload implication.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss this with fellow attendees and to consider how to incorporate it into their own practice.
Slides: SMcC