Evaluating feedback mechanisms in the School of Earth and Environment

Abstract

Assessment feedback plays a crucial role in the learning experience. However, recent National Student Survey (NSS) results have shown there to be a large degree of student dissatisfaction regarding assessment feedback right across the Higher Education sector in the UK. Evaluating feedback mechanisms in the School of Earth and Environment was a project at the University of Leeds, designed to evaluate the provision of assessment feedback through in-depth consultation with staff and students about current practices, with a view to building upon good practice and creating a strategy for further improvement. Data gathered via focus groups and questionnaires was distilled into a key set of recommendations for ways forward. The recommendations focused on two main strategies: a) the creation of a new comprehensive feedback code of practice for staff, and b) raising student awareness of their rights regarding feedback provision as well as their responsibility to engage with feedback and how to get the most from it. These initiatives have been supported by a distinct, highly visual and sustained advertising campaign designed to act as a corollary to raising staff and student awareness of assessment feedback.