What is it: QUALITATIVE feedback can be provided in the form of annotated comments on students' assessment tasks, assessment task advice and commentary, audio files or video files. Qualitative assessment feedback can be provided by the teacher, the student (self-assessment), peers (peer- assessment) or experts. Most qualitative feedback is provided to students by their teachers.

What is it: QUANTITATIVE feedback is often provided in the form of numeric marks, rating scales, grades or percentages. Like qualitative assessment feedback, qualitative assessment feedback can be provided by the teacher, the student (self-assessment), peers (peer- assessment) or experts, or it can be provided as automated responses within online assessment tools such as feedback of multiple choice quiz questions. Most quantitative feedback is provided to students by their teachers.

• This tutorial shows how Grademark in Turnitin® can be used to attach qualitative and quantitative feedback to students' assessment tasks.

• Avondale College of Higher Education, (AUSTRALIA)
  Northcote, M., Williams, A., Fitzsimmons, P., & Kilgour, P. W. (2014). Does the Type of Assessment Feedback I Give Make a Difference?: The Impact of Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment Feedback.

• Avondale College of Higher Education, (AUSTRALIA)
  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. In M. Baguley (Ed.), Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2015. University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Western Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)

• This posting from Stanford University, describes the differences between quantitative and qualitative research and the appropriate uses of each of them. It is from Chapter 4, Assessment Methods in the book:  Bresciani, M. J., Gardner, M. M., & Hickmott, J. (2010). Demonstrating Student Success: A Practical Guide to Outcomes-Based Assessment of Learning and Development in Student Affairs. Stylus Publishing, LLC

• At the University of British Columbia, we introduced an ePortfolio assignment in the operative dentistry clinical simulation module and conducted a pilot study to explore the usefulness of ePortfolios as a learning tool for dental students. Qualitative assessments included student self-reflections on the ePortfolio experience. In the quantitative evaluation, ePortfolio learning was hypothesized as a multidimensional experience with four dimensions: 

• Workshop given by Gail Matthews-DeNatale to the 2009 NERCOMP conference on assessment in higher education.