There does seem to be discussions going on at the moment in a number of institutions regarding more flexible and enhanced feedback to students on their assessments utilising audio, video etc as the media, rather than basic written feedback.
Whilst being laudable from a student experience perspective I was just wondering how other External Examiners might be viewing this. I foresee issues from an external examining perspective whereby enhanced feedback will serve to potentially slow down the external
moderation process, and effectively increase our workload by virtue of the extra time requirement required to digest it all. As an example, currently I might review a sample of assessed work whereby I can lay it all out on a table and gain fairly quick and
straightforward impressions of the feedback quality overall across a range of grades, as well as reviewing grade spread and appropriateness of grades etc. With a collection of video feedbacks, say, this then relies on me watching each feedback (including selecting,
logging in, watching and logging out possibly) and making individual moderation judgements, but then also having to rely on my memory (or written down notes made by myself during the videos) when it comes to reviewing overall feedback quality across a grade
range sample.
I’m just interested to hear what other External Examiners feel about these current assessment/feedback trends and the potential effect they may have on our roles.
Kind Regards
Mike
Mike Veveris
B.Tech, MSc, C.Eng, MIED, FHEA
Senior Lecturer in Product Design Engineering
Programme Leader - FdSc Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Programme Leader - BSc Mechanical Engineering (Mediterranean College, Athens)
Programme Leader – MSc Mechanical Engineering and Design (Mediterranean College, Athens)
Programme Leader - MSc Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
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