Supporting students in generating and using feedback

1. Supporting students in
generating and using
feedback
Professor David Carless,
University of Hong Kong,
Shue Yan University,
November 19, 2018
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2. Overview
1. Feedback frustrations
2. From telling to interaction
3. Interactive coversheets
4. Challenges & implications
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3. Intended outcomes
1. Appreciating limits of written feedback
2. Understanding that feedback is for
students & requires uptake
3. Developing user-friendly ways for
feedback interaction with students
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4. Frustrations
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5. Staff frustrations
• Heavy marking load
• Students don’t attend to feedback
• Students mainly interested in the grade
• Students lack motivation to act
…..
Others?
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6. Student frustrations
Feedback often comes at the end of teaching
sequences and it is too late for students to act
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7. DEFINING FEEDBACK
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8. Feedback as information
Information provided by an agent regarding
aspects of one’s performance or
understanding
(Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 81)
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9. Feedback involving action
A process in which learners make sense of
comments & use them for enhancement
purposes
Carless & Boud (2018)
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10. Closing feedback loops
It’s only feedback
if students take
some action
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11. Feedback is for students
Students’ needs and preferences should be
prioritized
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12. The University of Hong Kong

13. Discussion
What are the main challenges for student
uptake of feedback and how might they be
tackled?
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14. Feedback challenges
Too much feedback as telling
Lack of engagement with feedback
Lack of strategies for using feedback
The way modules/feedback is organized
Social-affective dimensions
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15. Limits of Feedback as telling
“Learners do not always
learn much purely from
being told, even when
they are told repeatedly in
the kindest possible way”
(Sadler, 2015, p. 16)
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16. FEEDBACK LITERACY
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17. Defining student feedback literacy
Understandings, capacities and dispositions
needed to make sense of comments and
use them for enhancement purposes
(Carless & Boud, 2018).
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18. Sustainable feedback
Dialogic activities in which students
generate and use feedback from peers, self
or others as part of self-regulation
(Carless et al. 2011, Carless, 2013)
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19. Shared feedback literacy
A need for co-ordinated staff and student
feedback literacy
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20. Teacher role
Curriculum & assessment design to promote
generating and using feedback
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21. Student feedback literacy
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Making
Judgments
Appreciating
Feedback
Managing
Affect
Taking Action
(Carless & Boud, 2018)

22. The University of Hong Kong
Acting on feedback
Student action on feedback influenced by
how assessment is designed

23. Feedback designs
Feedback as integral part of curriculum &
course design (Boud & Molloy, 2013)
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24. Example design
Task 1  feedback  interlinked task 2
Position students as active feedback
seekers & users
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26. Information and/or sense-making
DESIGN
Old paradigm New paradigm
Feedback as information
Risks of ‘dangling data’
Students receive comments
Cognitivist
Feedback as sense-making
Focus on uptake
Generating & using comments
Social constructivist

27. FEEDBACK AS PRACTICAL
FORMS OF INTERACTION
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28. Student needs
Find out what students want & prefer
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29. The University of Hong Kong
Interactive coversheet
Invite students to state what feedback they
want (Bloxham & Campbell, 2010)

30. Variation 1
Students complete the following prompt:
“I would most like feedback on ….”
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31. Variation 2
1. The strengths are …
2. The aspects for development are …
3. I would like feedback on …
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32. Variation 3
“The previous feedback that I have used to
strengthen this assignment is ….”
(Barton et al. 2016)
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33. Discussion
Share with a partner, how you could
use interactive coversheets. What
would be facilitators or challenges?
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34. Challenge
• Students found it hard to think of what
feedback they need;
• Expressed limited understanding of
expected standards
(Bloxham & Campbell, 2010)
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35. Possible solutions
1. Peer discussion of rubric and assignment
requirements (Bloxham & Campbell, 2010).
2. Dialogue around exemplars to illustrate
expectations (Carless & Chan, 2017)
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36. Preparation
Coach students on how to solicit useful
feedback
Support them in self-evaluating work
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37. Scaling up
Dialogue through coversheets could be a
pilot project then a departmental policy
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38. TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED
STRATEGIES
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39. Learning Management Systems
Storing and accessing feedback comments
Prompting students to act on prior feedback
(before receiving more feedback)
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40. Audio & Video feedback
Rapport
Nuance
Personalisation
Monologue or Dialogue?
Time saver?
Uptake & impact?
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41. Screencast feedback
Digital recording of users’ screen combined
with voice narration
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42. Peer video feedback
Peer-to-peer video feedback
delivered via Facebook
Hung (2016)
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43. PEER FEEDBACK
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44. Key Rationales
Involve students in dialogue
around the quality of work
Inform student self-evaluation
Potentially timely &
sustainable
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45. Training
Students need to be trained and coached in
how to carry out peer feedback
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46. Composing peer feedback
Providing feedback more cognitively engaging
than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)
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47. Main challenges
• Students don’t take it seriously
• Poor quality PF
• Students prefer teacher feedback
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48. Communication with students
Rationales
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Potential benefits

49. Implications
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50. Key aim of feedback
To enhance student
ability to self-monitor
their work in
progress
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51. Feedback literacy
Teachers need to help students understand
feedback & how they can use it
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52. Shifts in priorities
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Increase Decrease
Feedback on students’
preferences
Feedback on teachers’ priorities
Within module guidance Terminal comments
Comments on first task Comments on final task
Feedback for first year
students
Feedback for final year
students

53. Use resources wisely
Reduce teacher commentary at times when
it cannot reasonably be taken up (Boud &
Molloy, 2013)
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54. (Wiliam, 2015)
https://www.dylanwiliamcenter.com/feedback-for
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“Feedback should
be more work for
the recipient than
the donor”

55. Key recommendations
Need for interaction of different forms
Focus on learners’ needs
Enhance student feedback literacy
Design for uptake
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56. References
Barton, K. L., Schofield, S. J., McAleer, S., & Ajjawi, R. (2016). Translating evidence-based guidelines
to improve feedback practices: The interact case study. BMC Medical Education, 16(1).
doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0562-z
Bloxham, S. & Campbell. L. (2010). Generating dialogue in assessment feedback: Exploring the use
of interactive cover sheets. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(3), 291-300.
Boud, D. & Molloy, E. (2013). Rethinking models of feedback for learning: The challenge of design.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 698-712.
Carless, D. (2013). Sustainable feedback and the development of student self-evaluative capacities.
In S. Merry, M. Price, D. Carless & M.. Taras, (Eds.), Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher
Education. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2015). Excellence in University Assessment: Learning from award-winning practice.
London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2018). Feedback loops and the longer-term: Towards feedback spirals. Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1531108
Carless, D. & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of
feedback. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354.
Carless, D. & K.K.H. Chan (2017). Managing dialogic use of exemplars. Assessment and Evaluation
in Higher Education, 42(6), 930-941.
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57. References (continued)
Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M. & Lam, J. (2011). Developing sustainable feedback practices.
Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.
Hung, S.-T. A. (2016). Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video technology.
Computers & Education, 98, 90-101.
Nicol, D. (2010). From monologue to dialogue: Improving written feedback processes in mass higher
education. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), 501-517.
Nicol, D., Thomson, A. & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: A
peer review perspective. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), 102-122.
Sadler, D.R. (2015). Backwards assessment explanations: Implications for teaching and assessment
practice. In D. Lebler et al. (Eds.), Assessment in music education: From policy to practice (pp.9-
19). Cham: Springer.
Winstone, N. & Carless, D. (2019, forthcoming). Designing for student uptake of feedback in higher
education. London: Routledge.
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59. THANK YOU
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60. The University of Hong Kong