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Recommendations for practice |
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Standardisation
There is no standardised formula for implementation. However, it is
recommended that strategies should be:
- targeted to the needs of the student cohort; and
- implemented within the constraints of the institutions Learning
Management System (LMS)
Training
Training may be required to assist learning facilitators,
lecturers and tutors to set up the LMS in order to release feedback in
stages. Where multiple staff teach into one unit or course, this
training is essential to ensure a shared understanding is developed
about which feedback will be given to students, when it will be provided
and whether student-initiated feedback is involved (e.g.,
self-assessment or peer-assessment).
Efficiency
When gathering feedback from students about the use of the ARAF
strategies or when gathering feedback from students about their own
assessment tasks, they must be able to record their responses in some
form of electronic context for easy access and collection of
information.
Quality of feedback
Given the difficulty many higher education students have with applying
feedback to future assessment tasks, the following recommendations have
emerged from the findings of this project as strategies to encourage
student engagement with assessment feedback:
- Feedback should be cohesive, thoughtful and readily available
for future assessments.
- Thoughtful planning and preparation of the ICT components of
ARAF is required.
- Choice of the assessment task to which the ARAF strategies will
be employed is crucial. For example, applying ARAF strategies to the
first assessment task in a unit will allow students to apply the
feedback in a more timely manner.
Enhancing the feedback loop through self-assessment
To facilitate assessment as learning, students' completion of a
self-assessment rubric (identical to the rubric students receive from
lecturers) will enhance the feedback loop.
Students should be provided with a rationale for the benefits of
staged feedback and with specific implementation practices. For example,
information about the ARAF strategies could be provided in the form of
an information or Q&A time during class or an online self-paced tutorial
or forum.
Staged practical guidelines for design and development of
ARAF strategies
The following practical guidelines are provided to assist with the
implementation of ARAF strategies during a particular semester.
Guidelines are provided for practical measures to enact before the
semester begins, as well as during and after the semester.
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Pre-semester
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Decide on:
- type and amount of feedback to be given (e.g.,
quantitative scores, qualitative comments, diagrams, verbal
feedback, audio feedback, peer feedback, diagrams, annotations,
written feedback, overall comment, format of feedback given to
individuals and the whole cohort);
- location of feedback (e.g., on rubrics, on
assessment task, via email, on LMS);
- rubric design (e.g., availability, weightings,
length, criteria);
- timing of feedback (e.g., time taken to return
feedback to students after assessment tasks are submitted, when
individual feedback is distributed to individual students and to the
cohort); and
- sequencing of feedback (e.g., verbal feedback
followed by written feedback, qualitative feedback before, after or
with quantitative feedback).
- Create:
- instructions for completing assessment task;
and
- rubric content, structure and provision method.
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During the semester (provision of feedback)
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Decide on:
- self-assessment activity - whether students are
required to submit a set of responses to reflection questions with
their assessment task;
- who will provide assessment feedback (e.g.,
lecturers, other students, other experts); and
- how student responses about receiving feedback
will be gathered (e.g., an online survey or paper format, analysis
via LMS learning analytics).
Communicate to students:
- how rubric will be used by students (e.g.,
submit with assessment task, as a self-reflection activity);
- when and how assessment feedback will be
distributed; and
- why assessment feedback will be adaptively
released.
Implement:
- timing and frequency of how
varied types of assessment feedback will be distributed.
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During the semester (gathering responses from students about
feedback given)
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Communicate to students:
- data gathering and tracking methods of how
students' responses to receiving different types of feedback will be
collected.
Implement:
- timing and frequency of when
students will be requested to respond to different types of feedback
(e.g., immediately after or within one week of receiving feedback).
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During the semester (metaphase learning: learning that occurs
after students receive feedback)
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Implement:
- tracking method to gather information about
student actions after receiving feedback; and
- data gathering method to gather student
responses about receiving feedback.
Analyse:
- differences between students' quality of work
and grades, based on ARAF strategies used.
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Source of the table above: Morton, Johnson, Williams and Northcote
(2015, in press).
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References
Morton, L., Johnson, A., Williams, A., & Northcote, M. (2015, in press).
Research-informed guidelines for the development of adaptively-released
assessment feedback (ARAF) strategies in higher education. Paper
presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)
Conference 2015, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Western
Australia. |
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