Feedback: the student perspective

Abstract

The usefulness of the feedback received on assessments undertaken by accounting students during their degree programme is an area about which little has been written. Given the increasing significance of transparency in the academic process, as evidenced through the development of explicit programme and module learning outcomes, it seems anomalous that research into the student perception of the benefit they receive from assessment feedback to help them achieve those outcomes is virtually non‐existent.

This study investigates student views on the usefulness of feedback through a semi‐structured interview approach with 20 students across differing academic levels. The study principally finds that: although students are generally content with the feedback they receive, they have concerns over the consistency between the comments and the mark; there is general discontent at the lack of feedback from examinations; there is evidence that the desire for feedback is, in part, a function of student expectation of mark/grade.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the participants of the British Accounting Association (Scotland) 2004 Conference, and to acknowledge the insightful help and commentary of Robin Roslender, Karen Thomson, Fred Percival and Brian Windram.