The document discusses public assessment and student performance. It describes three case studies of university courses that incorporated public or shared assessment components, such as Twitter essays, music blogs, and contributing to Wikipedia. For each case study, it provides the course learning objectives and types of assessment. It also includes comparative grade data and examples of student feedback, which was generally positive about the value of public assessment. The document argues that making student work publicly available and assessing work intended for broader audiences can motivate students and shift the focus of feedback to a more social practice.

2. Who’s Read My
Essay?
Public Assessment
and Student
Performance
2015 HETL Utah Conference
A/Prof Marj Kibby
Faculty of Education and Arts
School of Humanities and Social Science
January 22, 2015

3. 3 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
What are you good at?
•Think of something you are good at. No need to
reveal what it is!
•How do you know you are good at it?
•Share the indicators with your neighbour.

4. 4 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Feedback
• You achieved your goals.
• You judged your performance against others.
• You judged your performance against
established criteria.
• Peers commented on your performance.
• Stakeholders commented on your
performance.
• An expert commented on your performance.

5. 5 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Product or process
Assessment feedback can be:
•an end product, a consequence of a completed
activity.
•a sequential process that supports learning
(feed-up, feed-forward).

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Goals
The aims of feedback are:
• enabling the gap between the actual level of
performance and the desired outcome to be
bridged.
• assisting students gain new understandings
that enable them to amend their performance.
The emphasis in educational research has been
on feedback as a corrective tool; however it can
also be seen as a challenge tool.

7. 7 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Student-centered
While the curriculum generally
has become more student-
centered, the assessment of
progress has remained strongly
instructor focussed (Nicol &
McFarlane-Dick, 2004).

8. 8 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Effective feedback
• Focus on the task and performance of the task
not on the person.
• Be integrated with, or closely follow the task.
• Engage students to facilitate the development
of self-regulatory behaviour.
• Include both individual and group reports.
• Be an ongoing conversation between lecturers
and students.

9. 9 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Satisfaction with feedback
Students complain that feedback is not sufficiently
immediate, does not justify the grade given, does
not tell them how to improve performance, is too
personal, is not sufficiently personal, is too
detailed, or not detailed enough, or that feedback
does not reflect their understanding of
requirements.

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Satisfaction with feedback
Issues for lecturers revolve around the perception
that students do not make use of feedback, not
acting on advice or following up on explanations
and suggestions.

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Feedback not read
•Students view the mark as more important than
the comments.
•The feedback isn't timely, and they have ‘moved
on’.
•Future assessments seem to provide no
opportunity to demonstrate improvement.

12. 12 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Effect of grades on feedback
Receiving a grade at the same time as
commentary on performance leads students to
concentrate on the grade at the expense of the
feedback.
Lipnevich and Smith (2008) found the effect of the
grade may lead students to become depressed
about their performance, leading them to be less
disposed to put forth the necessary effort to
improve their work.

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Separating grades and feedback
Grading and feedback are both complex
processes, with different functions and varying
effects, and there are significant benefits in
separating them.

14. 14 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Public assessment
Traditionally assessable work was only seen by
the person responsible for grading the work.
Now there are alternatives to the typed and
printed essay that provide an opportunity for a
broader readership for student work.

15. 15 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Case Study — Popular Culture
FMCS2200
Learning objectives:
This course explores the relationships between popular culture and society; it
assists students in developing the skills that will enable them to:
• Analyse the influence of new technologies on concepts of identity, gender,
race and the body.
• Construct a critical argument regarding the issues surrounding popular
culture.
• Apply theory critically in a case study of popular culture.
Assessment:
• Weekly quizzes
• Case study
• Twitter essays

16. 16 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Twitter essay
Write an essay about #culturechange in 140 characters that expresses an
opinion on appropriation, imperialism and/or reinvention of cultural
artefacts.

17. 17 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Comparative grades
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Fail Pass CR DI HD
2012
2013
2014

18. 18 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Student feedback

19. 19 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Case study — Music & Culture
FMCS2100
Learning objectives:
On completion of the course students will be able to:
• Critique the roles of music in culture.
• Explain the ideological assumptions of music culture.
• Apply cultural theories in independent research on music.
Assessment:
• My Music auto-ethnography
• PowerPoint grant application
• Music blog

20. 20 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Music blog
Read Hesmondhalgh's case study of how music can bring people together, A night out. Write a case
study based on your own experience of one of the functions of music in everyday life, drawing on the
module introduction and one or more of the suggested readings. Go beyond description to discuss or
analyse the situation. This case study is of the social function of music (its use in interpersonal
relationships), but you could write up an example of any of Merriam's functions.

21. 21 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Comparative grades
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Fail Pass CR DI HD
2012
2014

22. 22 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Student feedback

23. 23 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Case study — Digital Culture
FMCS3100
Learning objectives:
The course will explore the relationship between digital technologies and culture,
assisting students to develop knowledge and skills that will enable them to:
• Utilise a range of digital information and communication technologies;
• Engage in contemporary debates on the implications of digital culture;
• Identify and critically analyse key issues emerging from recent research into digital
culture;
• Apply appropriate research strategies to digital communication and culture.
Assessment:
• Participation in discussion forum.
• Production project using online creation and publication tools.
• Research project to contribute to Wikipedia.

24. 24 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Wikipedia
Students were given a choice of several topics to research, topics that
corresponded with Wikipedia articles that were largely ignored stubs: what the
Internet is doing to our brains, the Vlogger Rebecca Brown, online politics,
and digital detox. They used their research to update the Wikipedia articles.

25. 25 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Comparative grades
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Fail Pass CR DI HD
2012
2013
2014

26. 26 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Student feedback

27. 27 | The University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au
Feedback as social practice
Conversations around performance have taken place across the different
communities that students inhabit, so that feedback becomes a social practice.

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