Presentation delivered at Assessment HE conference, Birmingham 24-25th June 2015

1. The discrepancies between
staff and students’
perceptions of feedback
and assessment practices
Monika Pazio
Duncan Mckenna
“Leave me alone, I’m
trying to do my work”

2. The scope
• Institutional research
• Data collected as part of TESTA project
• Identifying points of tension between staff and
students’ understanding of feedback and
assessment practices across the institution

3. TESTA
• Amended version of the original TESTA
• Implemented cross-institutionally
• Tool for assisting with programme review
• Mandatory for 2 faculties, recommended for others
• So far 21 programmes

4. The data
849 questionnaire
responses
21 focus groups
Quality of feedback
analysis (IoE)
Programme audits

5. Contradictions and tensions in
perceptions
• Feedback
• Assessment loading
• Communication of goals and standards
• Fairness
SD (24) D (72) N (178) A (377) SA (117)
% 3% 9% 23% 49% 15%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
%TotalResponses
Overall I was satisfied with the quality of this course

6. Feedback
(quantity, quality, timeliness)
- Regular feedback
- Rich and detailed
- Within the university policy (15 days)
- Students don’t read it, all they want is a
grade

7. Feedback
(timeliness)
SD (77) D (225) N (218) A (167) SA (105)
% 10% 28% 28% 21% 13%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
%TotalResponses
Whatever feedback I received on my work came too late
to be useful
“The feedback on assignments are not
prompt. In year 2 we had to wait 9
weeks to get our grades for an
assignment. Again in year 3 lecturers
are still marking assignments 5 weeks
after the deadline, therefore no grades
have given.”
“I always find the first term a bit of
a guessing game - you don’t know if
you’re doing great, or really bad,
because all the assessments are at
Christmas; so you might be going
through a 12 week term, without
knowing anything.

8. Feedback
(quantity)
“Half the time I don’t ever really
get any feedback or even get it
marked.”
“There was one lecturer we kept
emailing because we wanted
feedback and we got one email,
the whole group, saying, please
leave me alone, I’m trying to do
my work.”
SD (49) D (149) N (240) A (227) SA (112)
% 6% 18% 29% 33% 14%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
%TotalResponses
Normally, I receive a sufficient amount of feedback on my
work
“it’s lazy, it’s just what everybody
else gets, it’s not personal at all.”

9. Feedback
(quality)
“There’s been a couple of
assignments where I’ve had a
fairly mediocre mark, but then
I’ve only had two lines of
feedback, and I’m there thinking
like, ‘Ok, that’s great, two
points, but what can you expand
on to tell me how I can improve
that?’”
SD (77) D (244) N (214) A (195) SA (62)
% 10% 31% 27% 25% 8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
%TotalResponses
I didn’t understand some of the feedback on my work
“It doesn’t really explain much,
it says good, ok but what’s
good.”

10. • Student lack of
understanding of what
feedback is (especially
oral, whole class)
• Staff lack of signposting
and communication
Feedback
(The reason for the tensions)
Quantity of feedback
Written
feedback
Average 6995 words per
student per programme (up
to 21000)
Oral
feedback
On average 40% of
feedback is oral

11. Feedback
(The reason for the tensions)
• Lack of
acknowledgment
of progress
• Minimal advice
on how to
improve

12. Assessment (over-)loading
• Appropriate number of
assessment linked to
objectives
• We only do 1 or 2,
sometimes 3
assessments per course

13. Assessment (over-)loading
SD (18) D (97) N (164) A (148) SA (69)
% 4% 20% 33% 30% 14%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
%TotalResponses
I felt overloaded by the number of assessments throughout
this programme
“I feel like it’s so much work
and there’s so much material,
and so much content that
they’re trying to cover in the 2
semesters that it’s really not
even sinking in”
“It’s too much and what’s
worse it’s all happening at
the same time. E end up
having 3 assessments in 2
weeks plus coursework.”

14. Assessment (over-)loading
(The reason for tensions)
…the curse of a portfolio
32%
63%
5%
Assessment diet
exam
portfolio
dissertation
11%
11%
16%
6%
0%
6%
5%
2%
18%
5%
18%
2%
Actual assessment diet
Exam
Essay
Report
Written CW
Online Task
In-Class Test
Practical
PDP
19 assessments 55 assessments

15. Clarity of goals and standards
Fairness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyG5ugFYQ4s

16. Summary
Lack of understanding
Lack of understanding
Lack of communication
Lack of communication
students

17. Attribution
http://www.vinnychany.kiev.ua/!_art/images/674_1.jpg
http://www.freakingnews.com/images/adv-images/magnifying-
glass.jpg
http://www.thepowbox.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/12/binoculars-icon.png
http://milwaukeecollegiateacademy.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/08/growing-plant.jpg
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1397455!/img/httpImag
e/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/baskets-bicycle-
myanmar.jpg

18. Thank you
Contact details:
Monika Pazio
m.pazio@gre.ac.uk