Abstract:

The provision of feedback is often considered pivotal for learners to develop or enhance their knowledge and skills (Ghilay & Ghilay, 2015) Informative constructive feedback has been shown to be a highly powerful motivator, a failure to feedback can lead to demotivation of the learner (Butler & Nisan, 1986). Nonetheless, provision is not enough! Students’ must engage with their feedback for it to have a positive impact on their learning and development (Nash & Winstone, 2017). Learners should also reflect and articulate their thoughts and understanding of the feedback with the assessors (Carless & Boud, 2018; Dawson et al 2019). This is a clear move to a more socio-constructivist appreciation of feedback.

The “perceived value” of feedback is variable to staff and students. Generally, it is recognised that students “value feedback”, with the most expected feature being the mark (ElShaer et al, 2020). Yet, it is the engagement with informative feedback rather than the assigned mark alone, which leads to feed-forward, enabling and facilitating the development of knowledge and understanding over the course of an individual’s study (Jackson & Marks, 2016). Deeper learning is synonymous with engagement and reflection on informative constructive feedback, as opposed to simply being satisfied or disgruntled with the awarded mark (Mensink & King, 2020).

Students have been shown to prefer feedback which is 1:1 verbal or electronic over that of a group (ElShaer et al, 2020). The primary reason for this is hypothesised to relate to the interactive discussion and reflective process that is undertaken when in discussion. By integrating the use of an online tool that encourages reflection on feedback and performance, it is hoped that the principles of the former can be achieved whilst reducing burden on staff output and allowing continuity of feedback provision across all students, therefore removing barriers to learning.

Here the authors present their findings and reflections from their current study on the separation of marks from feedback and incorporation of simple reflective practice tasks using digital tools. Using current functionality in Instructure [CANVAS] the authors evaluate student/feedback interactions from their qualitative and quantitative study.

Using a second-year undergraduate degree practical module (over 150 “Biomedical” and “Biological” Sciences students) as the focus of the project, the primary aim of this research study is to explore the current functionality in the University’s Virtual Learning Environment [CANVAS] to enhance student engagement and reflection on feedback to assignments, in the absence of an associated mark. The authors are also assessing student perception of module marks when provided with comprehensive feedback only, and the use of reflective practice to interact with written feedback. Phase 1, data analysis, student reflections and questionnaire feedback, will be completed in 2021. Quantitative and qualitative data collected from this project (VLE analytics, reflections, student attainment and questionnaires), alongside student’s anecdotal evidence and staff reflections on the processes adopted for engagement in assessment feedback and reflective practice will be presented. We hope that these research findings will inform future development of a fit for purpose integrated feedback tool within virtual learning environments and highlight the importance of feedback engagement in student learning.

Keywords:

Feedback, assessment, engagement, reflection, VLE.