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Dear all I used to do something similar to what John describes here, but the students did the thinking for themselves about their work before it was handed in. Students had to fill in and hand in a self marking sheet with their assessment. The prompts reflected on the the ILOs of the unit/assignment, and included some of the ideas that Natalie includes in her exercise below. The self marking sheet allowed students to ask me for specific feedback on a specific topic (usually how is my referencing, did I make a good argument, in the first year). They then, based on their reflection and the marking criteria, provided their own mark. This level of reflection was quite profound, as their marks were pretty much consistently within the same classificataion as mine. I introduced the self assessment as previously first year student expectations were that their marks would be higher than they were ... It was a very useful thing to do. Chris Christine Keenan FHEA Learning and Teaching Fellow School of Design, Engineering & Computing Bournemouth University Poole House Fern Barrow Poole Dorset BH12 5BB Tel: 01202 965307 -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Hilsdon Sent: 10 March 2011 11:35 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: students and formative feedback Hello Martin and all This is a fascinating theme! My colleague Joe and I are running an LD module on our Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice. Our (one!) participant, Natalie, a Tourism lecturer, chose to work on assessment for learning as her project. We recommended some reading (including John Cowan's On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher - still an excellent source of ideas!) and a copy of a checklist we use to get students to think about assessment. She used this to devise an activity similar to ones described by others in this thread, whereby students are not given their grades immediately ... Natalie gave permission for us to forward the details below: In her activity, Natalie allocated a session where students were given a set of questions and then asked first to re-read their assignments and rate themselves before receiving their feedback and grade. Here is part of the exercise: 1. Read the assignment brief. 2. Now, on your own, read your assignment. 3. On reflection, consider the following questions and tick only those which apply to your assignment: (if you are not 100% certain that your assignment does what is asked in the question, leave the box blank) Does the essay answer the question/deal with the topic that was set? Does it cover all the key points and a range of arguments or viewpoints? Have you covered the main points in sufficient depth? Is the essay analytical in style and questioning in approach? Have you developed and sustained the argument throughout the essay? Is the argument logical and realistic? Is the content accurate and relevant? Is the material logically arranged? Is there a sense of direction, a reason why one paragraph follows another? Is each main point well supported by examples and argument? Do you acknowledge all sources, in the main body and at the end? Have you used an appropriate number and range of sources? Is the essay the correct length? (check the brief) Have you written the work in an appropriate style, and simply and clearly? (Would an academic who wasn't a specialist in your subject understand it?) Is the grammar, punctuation and spelling correct? Have figures and tables (if used) been used appropriately and referenced? Is the essay well-presented, with the right spacing, font, font size and cover sheet? Students were then given the feedback comments (but not their grades) and asked to consider if they felt the mark was fair. 4. Now consider the comments which have been marked on the script, and answer the following questions: Yes No Do you understand the comments which have been made? Do you have questions that you feel you should ask? Have you asked those questions and received clarification? Are you aware now of some of the pitfalls in your assignment? 5. Considering the answers to all of these questions, read the marking criteria, and give yourself a mark that you feel reflects your completed and assessed assignment: Suggested mark: Is there anything that you think you believe you can do to improve this assignment? (Reflect on the marking criteria e.g. Knowledge and Understanding, Synthesis, Analysis, Communication and Presentation) Then the students were given their grade and offered an opportunity to discuss it if they wanted to. Finally they were asked to record their key learning points from the session - and how it would affect the way they might do their assignments in future. The students' comments were overwhelmingly positive and showed that this had been a really powerful learning session. Almost all felt their grade was fair and, since tutorials were on offer, those who were less happy had opportunities to go over any issues arising. This was really good learning development practice, I think! I'm hoping to persuade Natalie to write a paper about all of this & submit to the JLDHE - (when she has finished writing up her PhD!!) and to present to one of our conferences about it ... and we will certainly be building on these ideas in discussion with other lecturers ... V best John John Hilsdon Head of Learning Development Room 102, 3 Endsleigh Place University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA 01752 587750 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> www.learningdevelopment.plymouth.ac.uk<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn> -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hepplestone, Stuart Sent: 10 March 2011 10:15 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: students and formative feedback Hi Martin At Sheffield Hallam University we have worked with Blackboard Inc to develop a custom Assignment Handler extension to our Blackboard system. One feature of this system is that students see feedback to assignments without their grade (although both the feedback and grade has been uploaded to the Grade Centre by the tutor at the same time). Once students have responded to this feedback by submitting a short reflective account or action plan is their grade automatically made available to them. The report from a research project looking partly at the impact of this can be found at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/EvidenceNet/TFA_report_final.pdf and there will be opportunities to find out more about the Assignment Handler extension at the forthcoming Blackboard Learning and Teaching Conference in Leeds next month: http://www.bbworld.com/2011/TeachingAndLearning/content.asp?id=1798 Regards, Stuart Stuart Hepplestone Senior Lecturer in Curriculum Innovation (Assessment) Learning and Teaching Institute Student and Learning Services Sheffield Hallam University City Campus, Howard Street Sheffield S1 1WB Tel: 0114 225 4744 -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Foster, Ed Sent: 09 March 2011 17:38 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: students and formative feedback Hello Martin Try 'Harnessing assessment and feedback in the first year to support learning success, engagement and retention' by Sally Kift and Kim Moody available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/28849/ it contains lots of examples of interesting feedback practices Ed -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network on behalf of Martin Hampton Sent: Wed 09/03/2011 5:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: students and formative feedback Hello all I seem to recall hearing somewhere about an institution or department somewhere making strides in effective use of formative feedback by establishing a system where students have no access to grades until they have 'collected' (materially or virtually, I cannot recall) and responded to (again, can't remember exactly how) their markers' comments. Does anyone know of any such system in use? And if so, does anyone have any useful contacts? thanks! Martin Hampton ASK University of Portsmouth. This email is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. In this case, please reply to this email to highlight the error. Opinions and information in this email that do not relate to the official business of Nottingham Trent University shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the University. Nottingham Trent University has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus-free, but we do advise that the recipient should check that the email and its attachments are actually virus free. This is in keeping with good computing practice. This email is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed and may contain confidential information. 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