- Approaches to assessing group work
- Embedding AI into assessment practices
- Developing student feedback literacy
- Innovative assessment methods
- Implementing peer assessment
- Embedding dialogic feedback principles
-
Sector-wide challenges in assessment and feedback
This year, the SIG is co-lead by:
- Emma Passmore (Principal Teaching Fellow- Faculty of Engineering)
- Monika Rossiter (Principal Teaching Fellow - Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship)
- Vijay Tymms (Principal Teaching Fellow - Faculty of Natural Sciences)
Meeting Schedule:
We convene once a term to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate and contribute. These meetings serve as a forum for lively discussions, presentations, demonstrations, and networking opportunities.
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Meeting history 2024
Agenda
Magda Charalambous – ePortfolio, Life Sciences
Jeffrey Vernon – "Will the bridge stay up?" Self-directed assessments
Followed by round table discussion
Summary
Innovation in assessment and feedback can take many forms. Magda Charalambous, Life Sciences, described a reflective ePortfolio where students create a repository of their feedback, and reflect on how to use it to improve performance, whilst creating a synopsis of their skills development that can be accessed and discussed with personal tutors. Jeffrey Vernon presented a general discussion piece on assessment, introducing the concept of self-directed assessments, where students engage with non-conventional assessment strategies (e.g. have a choice of assessment type), which can give a greater sense of ownership and accelerate the development of expert behaviours.
Agenda
11.30 - Spencer Cockerell will speak on his work on designing an ‘assessment feedback agreement’ document, in the dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
12.00 - Peter Johnson will speak about automated feedback on self-study, followed by questions & discussion.
12.30 - Open discussion on the theme of student feedback literacy.
Summary
Spencer Cockerell (EEE) presented a working document on Feedback Literacy, which outlines expectations for students and staff and acts as a commitment to provide, recognise and engage with feedback, including use of reflective feedback portfolios for students. Peter Johnson (Mech Eng) presented Lambda feedback, an online study platform that provides automated formative feedback on self-study. The platform automatically scaffolds feedback for students, allowing them to make low stakes mistakes and to make progress quickly, enhancing their contact time with teachers. Students work through problem sets in their own time and with stepped feedback; introducing “game” elements (e.g. progress leaderboards) might enhance engagement.
Agenda
Arrival, welcome, grabbing food/ tea/ coffee
An open discussion around best practice in delivering student feedback
Summary
Departments that excel in feedback provision (according to NSS/PTES) shared best practice. There is no “magic dust”; creating supportive learning environments that nurture students academically AND pastorally creates positive experiences overall. In addition, excellent feedback requires: clear communication to students (“your feedback will look like this, you’ll receive it by…”); clear communication to markers (providing feedback models, setting achievable marking deadlines); training students in feedback literacy (recognising different forms of feedback; encouraging reflection); good admin support (to re-allocate marking when necessary, to recruit GTA markers); using technology to generate and distribute feedback; consistent feedback approaches across different modules.
Agenda
Arrival, welcome, grabbing food/ tea/ coffee
Presentation: Spencer Cockerell will speak on his work on designing an ‘assessment feedback agreement’ document, in the dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Presentation: Peter Johnson will speak about automated feedback on self-study, followed by questions & discussion.
Open discussion on the theme of student feedback literacy.
Summary
Spencer Cockerell (EEE) presented a working document on Feedback Literacy, which outlines expectations for students and staff and acts as a commitment to provide, recognise and engage with feedback, including use of reflective feedback portfolios for students. Peter Johnson (Mech Eng) presented Lambda feedback, an online study platform that provides automated formative feedback on self-study. The platform automatically scaffolds feedback for students, allowing them to make low stakes mistakes and to make progress quickly, enhancing their contact time with teachers. Students work through problem sets in their own time and with stepped feedback; introducing “game” elements (e.g. progress leaderboards) might enhance engagement.
Agenda
Magda Charalambous – ePortfolio, Life Sciences
Jeffrey Vernon – "Will the bridge stay up?" Self-directed assessments
Followed by round table discussion
Summary
Innovation in assessment and feedback can take many forms. Magda Charalambous, Life Sciences, described a reflective ePortfolio where students create a repository of their feedback, and reflect on how to use it to improve performance, whilst creating a synopsis of their skills development that can be accessed and discussed with personal tutors. Jeffrey Vernon presented a general discussion piece on assessment, introducing the concept of self-directed assessments, where students engage with non-conventional assessment strategies (e.g. have a choice of assessment type), which can give a greater sense of ownership and accelerate the development of expert behaviours.
Recording
Meeting History 2023
Agenda
Arrival, welcome, grabbing food/ tea/ coffee
Introductions, introduction to the SIG
"Gen AI tools - College Rules and Guidance", Tom Davison, ESE
Round table discussion
Suggestions for layout/programme of meetings, closing remarks
Summary
A lively and informative first meeting of this SIG. After an overview of College guidance around use of Generative AI in teaching and assessment (Tom Davison, ESE), the meeting opened to a round table discussion. Assessment formats threatened by misuse of AI (e.g., synthesis exercises; coding exercises; coursework in general) were discussed, followed by methods of authenticating student work (e.g. randomised authenticity interviews across cohorts; submission of reflective journals and/or prompt engineering records). ChatGPT benefits (e.g. finessing language for enhanced clarity; generating prompt feedback) and challenges (e.g. incorrect citations; plagiarism), were covered.
Recording
There was only one SIG meeting
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