Context: In this post, I reflect on a recent OpenCourse I have been completing. It centres on digital capacity and one I am so glad I engaged with. No matter what level you feel you are at with digital capacity, this is a very worthwhile course. Specifically, I wanted to use this blog post to reflect and detail what I decided to focus on (programme focused feedback opportunities), and show the 'story' of the process I followed. Very worthwhile overall, and a wonderfully supportive experience.
The National Forum OpenCourse
The work itself, and my platform for it, fits well with several of the areas of the DigCompEdu framework. Mapping our experience to this framework was one of the first activities, and one I would recommend people consider. It can really help to further justify the work you are doing, highlight areas you need to develop more with and in the vast majority of cases, realise how well you are already doing in this space.
My Feedback 'addiction' & rationale for this work
Essentially, you will see the reflection linked above brought me to the benefits of collating feedback in an actionable way being needed, supporting self-reflection and engagement with actioning of the feedback. I mentioned the University of Surrey's FEATS programme, and you can read more about it in the blog post's reflection section linked. FEATS has always captured my attention.
Hence, I wanted to explore the 'MyFeedback' plugin on Moodle to see how it functions, but to all investigate it from the student point of view. Taking steps towards a more holistic approach to digital feedback provision, collation and action are all on my radar. Could this plugin support the collation of Moodle feedback across programmes? Could students be empowered to extract the key points from feedback received, and extract them across modules so they can see the 'big picture'? Well that was my goal! To work towards achieving this goal, I felt it was firstly important to test, troubleshoot and use the platform initially, before planning pilots upon the return to the classroom. Obtaining student feedback at that point, as well as from the programme team, will also be important in order to both build awareness and identify any issues to further enhance its implementation. We are fortunate to have supportive teams in both our CELT and IT department, meaning we can have open discussions there and feed back any issues identified too. Considering Programme Focused Feedback OpportunitiesWhat I did here...
Once all the feedback had been provided, I was able to then swap back to the student role, examine how the feedback appears and to also investigate how it connects in to 'MyFeedback'.
The 'student' view
Can 'MyFeedback' actually help learners?...
Overall, it's a great plug in and one we should encourage staff/students to engage with across their programme/modules. It has the capacity for learners to be empowered to extract key points from feedback across all their Moodle assignments, helping them see the bigger picture on their strengths and areas for improvement that may be common across various modules/lecturer feedback.
There is potential here for students to have everything in one place, an aspect that came through in a recent national survey. A good example of this is when I reflected on previous audio feedback sent as an audio file by e mail to my students. One later said that on their bus commute a few weeks later, while listening to their library on shuffle, my feedback file started playing in their earphones! I'd prefer not to be 'landing' in their playlists, and having it all in the myFeedback lets them collate it, reflect on it etc. when they wish, and in the one place. Any major considerations/things to note?
From my use of the plug in on Moodle, I did come across some areas I feel are worth being aware of....not being negative here, but just building awareness of some points to note if you are getting started with it like me....
Integrating for the longer term?
When I began to consider the longer term, programme wide integration of MyFeedback, some points came to mind....
Overall, would I recommend a National Forum supported OpenCourse?
What's not to love? You get to be part of a wider group across the HE sector, with numerous opportunities to network and share. You are incredibly supported by the group of course facilitators. Complementing this, you are a member of a peer triad group, which truly is a real cornerstone for learning and motivation. I have been so inspired by my fellow triad members on this OpenCourse, with support, understanding, positivity and encouragement filling our meetings. Listening to different projects, viewpoints, experience, expertise is invaluable and the positive comments and suggestions you get from the triad team can make such a difference in your motivation and work too. Your colleagues can see things that maybe you didn't notice or consider, or perhaps they have tried and tested something similar before. All in all, it's been a wonderful journey to have made such strong connections with colleagues and leaders from other institutions.
I honestly can't really remember significantly learning from a previous submission - being honest I guess we were too focused on the score and the approximate 'grade band'. On some occasions, I may have engaged with the demonstrator to enquire about my mark and what I could do to improve it. Otherwise, it was more 'one-way traffic', a process not realising its learning potential. Traditionally, everything was summative, and that was the approach instilled across the board at that time.
Joining Higher Education & Initial Feedback goals.
When I joined the academic community in 2009, one of my early personal goals was to help my students to learn at every opportunity, and develop a feedback-centric, always-improving mindset. The potential was too immense to ignore. My own experience outlined above was a key driver for me with this goal. I approached with a focused gusto, providing copious amounts of feedback to each students, handwritten - with hours of enthusiastic time being put in. However, when I reflect now, I probably did what many do in the early stages of a teaching career, and go all in with an assumption you are doing the right thing. So what happened? Looking back, I recall hours and hours of feedback generation not fulfilling its purpose. The same mistakes were appearing week-on-week, by the same students despite my sustained and repeated efforts. Feedback uptake, and future actions from it were not working. I had to consider some sort of a complete systemic change around feedback.
I worked with students in a partnership approach to learn from their experiences. All of my research around this space were evaluated via online surveys or focus groups, to ensure I was hearing anonymous feedback. It was the only way I could improve what I was doing. With ethical approval acquired in advance, I was able to disseminate my findings at conferences and in publications.
In general, reviewing Figure 5, I have worked on individual approaches developing personalised feedback sheets for example, group approaches to generalise feedback for large groups, while starting to consider digital approaches, e.g. audio or video feedback, which I will detail and reflect on below.
As part of a National Forum supported project (the TEAM project I was involved in) aimed to develop technology enhanced assessed methods in practicals across science and health, it is worth noting one of the project's four themes centred specifically on 'digital feedback', while some of the others had feedback elements built in to them (such as electronic lab notebooks, pre-practical quizzes combined with app-based quizzes, rubrics etc.). When we reflected on the project, we realised that while we were focusing on assessment at the beginning, all our work was engaging with student feedback provision in parallel.
My other app of choice has been 'notability'. It's primarily a note taking app that works well on the iPad with the Apple pencil. As well as annotating PDF files submitted from assignments, I started recording audio comments on the app that integrated on the annotated PDF file. It gave me an opportunity to explain and expand on my comments - something that was concerning me with written feedback, i.e. was I explaining it enough with text? The audio and video help so much in this regard. However, one issue with this can become time. Over explaining can make feedback too long, and this can mean students won't engage. Turnitin has limited its feedback to 3 minutes, a feature that ensures you explain concisely while importantly controlling both your, and the student's, workload. Vital tip there! I will expand on my digital approaches further below.
Option 2: Engaging with Microsoft OneNote, I was able to design assessments and provide students with collaborative spaces for peer learning. A key element of this software package was the opportunities it provided around feedback. For example, I could click, record and place my audio comment at the relevant part of the assignment; I could annotate the submission with comments and with the iPad and stylus, could handwrite comments also. I found this helpful to link and connect comments with relevant aspects of the submission. Equally, the software allows typed text comments also. In addition to this, I worked on integrating rubric feedback in to the OneNote reports, to support learner feedback corresponding to specific criteria. Option 3: Another element I commenced was recording standalone audio files that I could send via e mail to students. I found this helpful for group project submissions as it supported the dialogic process I had established with the groups. After sharing audio feedback with teams, I could use class time to engage and discuss it further, continuing the conversation. Option 4: Engaging with our institution's virtual learning environment (Moodle), I developed a set of rubrics around assessing a skill or competency. Here, I was able to assess while providing immediate feedback via the rubric. Using an iPad and stylus, i was able to 'check' the relevant rubric boxes on each student's virtual learning environment based rubric. Before the student left the room, they could access their rubric feedback and grade. While very beneficial, I find rubrics alone, without personalised comments, can cause a disconnect in the feedback process. Don't get me wrong, they can work very well especially if co-created with students, but I feel they are complemented and enhanced by the additional incorporation of open comments from the educator. I found taking that approach more beneficial for the learner, as the rubric may not capture aspects that could support that specific individual. Option 5: I became a big fan of screencasts relatively early in my teaching career. I like various aspects of 'tech' and was keen to engage where it supported learning. I was able to make screencasts to complement my teaching. Over the years, I got more in to the video and audio quality of these, as well as finding new platforms for sharing my content. But I often found I needed to make my videos more engaging, to help the viewer. I was successful in applying for funding to support the development of customised sketch diagrams, and this brought my feedback videos to a new level. Equally, I began to invest in various software packages which facilitated mouse tracking. These simple approaches were very effective and supported ways I was providing feedback. I was able to engage with new ways to engage my students with the feedback I was providing. As we have now entered a sphere of hybrid/hyfelx/blended/online/remote learning etc., the expertise around feedback in addition to the grounding in literature, an evidence base, around feedback, I feel I am very aware of the importance and potential of feedback and hopefully can continue to build on my work and continue to improve how I support my students.
But what is feedback without uptake and action?
At this stage I have described my chronological journey enhancing feedback for learners. However, as I have often mentioned to date, how a student engages with feedback, and develops an action from it, is equally important to consider. My incremental marking system engaged learners with the mindset of improving based on engaging with, and acting on, the feedback received. The self-assessment worksheets engaged the students with reflection on their work, meaning they are considering their work as they submit. I found this change again impacts their mindset; they seemed to care more about their submission and were looking forward to seeing what I thought of it, reading through the comments. Positioning feedback review sessions and feedback dialogue opportunities in to class time can enhance this uptake and engagement further, while asking students to mention an element of feedback on a previous submission they acted on gets them in to the mindset of recognising how feedback can support their future work. It's worth knowing that all the effort you put in to feedback needs to be complemented by processes and systems to support its uptake. Engage with your learners, speak to them and most importantly listen to what they are saying about feedback. Together, both groups can ensure your feedback makes a big impact.
In my reflection piece below, I will review and consider some elements of where this feedback journey has taken me so far.
Supporting Feedback Enhancement with System Changes
Feedback needs attention and supports in place. For example, for first year students transitioning to higher education, explaining what feedback is and what its purpose is should be considered. We then need to ensure we develop consistent approaches across programmes to embed familiarity for learners. Reflecting, I feel a key approach that advanced uptake of my feedback was the incremental marking scheme, as it propelled students to seek ways to improve each submission - with the realisation that feedback facilitates this. Does Feedback Actually Work? Reflecting on my experiences, I feel feedback on its own only truly resonates with a small proportion of a class. Feedback needs to be more of a culture than a simple process. It needs a framework of support, consistent across modules and programmes. For example, first years transitioning in to Higher Level may need feedback to be explained to them in simple terms, with opportunities to realise its role and potential for learning. Educators need to ensure feedback is more facilitator or action focused, as opposed to content focused. How educators consider their feedback is important - is what is provided supporting future learning and improvement, or is it just fixing the mistakes, grammar or spelling errors? Feedback uptake needs to be promoted, and monitored, ensuring engagement and synthesis of the learning takes place. I found building in feedback review times helpful, as well as providing a task to students to highlight an aspect of the previous feedback received which they have taken on board. It makes them reflect, think and identify one element they are taking forward to improve. If this happens across the board, they identify several improvement areas. I am proud of my incremental marking system, and the impact it had on feedback engagement and uptake. Since its inception, I stopped seeing the same mistakes being made on subsequent assignments. So yes, reflecting, I still feel feedback can work, but for a better reach of uptake and action, elements and structures around it need to be considered. Pilot Power & Partnering with Students Advising the changes and innovations I put in place were pilots and collaborations with students to inform, reflect and evaluate processes. I learned quite quickly the power and importance of designing pilots initially with small groups. It built my confidence in what I was doing, while allowing an opportunity to trial and make improvements to elements too, changes that are student-informed and enhancing their learning. Dialogic Approaches to Feedback Like many elements of teaching, didactic or one-way traffic approaches can often restrain learning potential. Similarly with feedback, I have found building in opportunities to reflect and discuss feedback helpful. We often hear of feedback loops, and the term 'closing the loop' but I do like David Carless's description of a feedback spiral (Carless, 2018), promoting the life long learning element and the role feedback can play in this. I think this takes things to another, continuous learning, level and something that really impacted my way of thinking around feedback. Does Technology Actually Help Students with Feedback? Of course with technology, it's important not to just blindly follow a new trend. Remembering pedagogies and identifying an evidence base for interventions can support the success around technology. I feel technology should support the learning, not drive it. With regard to feedback, technology does provide so many additional avenues, that can benefit learners. We can ensure that accessible approaches to feedback can be provided, for example, video and audio feedback can be viewed online, with accompanying text transcripts allowing further engagement. For international learners, translation opportunities may support further. Personally, I've found feedback with technologies has enhanced my practice, allowing me to communicate and explain with my students in a clear way. I can use subsequent class or practical time to engage in feedback reflection and dialogue. In saying that, technology does have to be truly considered by programme teams. For example, students receiving feedback by various software platforms or apps across their modules, could become overwhelmed or bombarded by well-meaning educators. I really dream of developing some sort of consistency around this, as a learner overwhelmed by excessive feedback may actually avoid it. If I had to be critical of technology for feedback, or putting it a more positive way, aspects to ensure you consider in this space, it is important to ensure feedback also remains 'personalised'. With technology, there is the potential of 'colder' matter of fact feedback, even automated feedback, without personal elaboration and guidance. For example, a VLE rubric can provide feedback based on criteria along a scale, however the text is often generic and many don't add personalised comments on top of the rubric to support future actions around improvement. Technology has the potential to succeed in this space, but you have to make it work for you and your students. Putting yourself in their shoes can really ensure the benefits are truly met. Beating the bombardment? Answer = FEATS; bringing it all together - what an amazing model! While I am proud of my achievements around feedback, I still feel I have so much to yet improve on. Digital feedback sounds fantastic for students, but many don't put themselves in the position of the student being 'bombarded' by all these various types of feedback. While meant as a support, learners may find this overwhelming, unable to synthesise and act on the feedback across modules. It has to be brought together - it has to! I attended a session on feedback in our Institution, led by Dr. Naomi Winstone and Dr. Rob Nash. As part of this, they presented the University of Surrey's FEATS platform, co-created with students working with Dr. Winstone (see Figure 8 above). Here, students are able to categorise the feedback they receive in one place, meaning they can learn the aspects of their work requiring further attention and those in which they are excelling. It provides a platform to help synthesise the feedback, and allow learners to see the gaps they need to work on and fill. A superb innovation, so student centred yet staff can also use this to support their students further and even monitor implementation of feedback category areas. So, you can see, I still have a lot to accomplish! Workload One aspect of an educator's workload that has significantly changed in recent years has been around providing feedback. Looking back, it is an area that I spend a huge amount of time on. I provide feedback on all continuous assignments, projects and laboratory exercises, activities and reports. An immense amount of effort and time. It is important for me, and my colleagues, to manage this feedback workload yet still achieve the role of feedback in enhancing our students' learning experience and associated work. Could tweaking assessment be the key, across programmes? Can we have programme feedback? A lot to ponder on. Have I it All Mastered? Can I improve? While I feel I have made a significant contribution to enhancing feedback with my students, I still feel I have a lot to learn and implement. I would like to work more on my feedback becoming more actionable, and track its implementation across future assignment submissions. Ultimately, a big issue for me is the 'bringing together' of feedback across stages, or programmes, for students. It is a big initiative to consider though, one I feel needs cross-departmental buy-in. With many academics having their own approach to feedback, it may be difficult to bring it all together. However, with the new digital approaches and increased digital confidence amongst staff, perhaps getting a programme platform for tracking feedback approaches may be more feasible now. I'm currently working with the MyFeedback Moodle plugin to further investigate its potential in this space. There is more 'digital' feedback than ever at the moment, however I still get drawn to the potential for feedback bombardment to overwhelm students. It will be so important to put the learner at the centre of everything as we navigate a post-COVID future, and while assessment will be a major discussion point, feedback has to be part of these considerations also. I do see the approach to assessment can influence feedback directly. As we enter a post-COVID world, final exams could even become a thing of the past, with a more continuous approach to assessment. However, this has to be approached with caution as over-assessment of students could become an unsustainable reality. Synoptic, integrated assessment could represent the way to move forward, and in situations like this, an approach of collating feedback in a holistic way - it might end up being the only way forward yet! Walk the Talk! Finally, I commenced this post with a reflection on personal experience, and I will end with the same. In the summer of 2018, I did an Associate Certificate in Graphic Design as a PD opportunity. Interestingly, I was specifically praised by the course instructors for how I received, listened and acted on the feedback they provided. It was highlighted on a few occasions. So as a learner, I recognise the potential of feedback - and showing how much I value it, practice what I preach!
Citations mentioned in the text:
The concept of continuous learning and improvement has consistently been something I’ve been passionate about. We always have the opportunity to learn something new, and this has so many benefits. While I love learning, my role in education centres on this from the ‘other side’ - as I facilitate learning and understanding of complex scientific topics. On a personal level, I love learning new things, approaches, skills - developing new ways to look at the same thing with a fresh lens, new abilities to implement in different settings, new ways to communicate or connect, manage situations etc.
However, while we can always independently learn something new, we can also truly learn from each other’s experiences. Hence the concept of discussions with students, colleagues, mentors, management and other stakeholders can provide opportunities for learning. The pandemic experience often referred to missing the ‘watercooler’ conversations, while the National Forum’s professional development (PD) framework even includes these informal, collaborative activities as potential modes of PD - unstructured, non-accredited, informal.
Conferences, and focused professional development courses can provide excellent avenues for interactions with like-minded individuals, people interested in some of the same things as you, which of course carries enormous benefit. However, recently I attended a ‘Practice Sharing Event’ in DkIT which centred on feedback in teaching and learning (as part of the ongoing National Forum SATLE supported 'Focus on Feedback' project in the institution). Now while the format involved a keynote talk, and two sessions of short presentations, split by a coffee break and ending before lunch, which many may feel replicates the standard conference format, the subtle emphasis on practice sharing was very impactful on the tone of the event.
This was further supported by the opening keynote talk by the amazing Prof. Phillip Dawson from CRADLE/Deakin University in Melbourne (here’s a prompt to check out Phillips’s bio, and to seriously consider either attending one of his talks or inviting him to present at an upcoming meeting). His keynote was all you could ask for on the day - informative, engaging, interactive, thought provoking, and inspiring (and he was joining us from his home in Australia while we were based in Dundalk). The subsequent coffee break was a hive of activity, with everyone primarily reflecting on how amazing his keynote was. For example, people commented on his overall delivery and approach, the way he openly interacted with the audience and how he left paused after each question – leaving time for people to meaningfully engage. His deliberation of, and responses to, the comments from the group, complemented by his vast awareness of the literature and bringing in points by other leaders in the space too, all made led to it to be positively reflected on. For me, the true benefit of his keynote was in fact the tone he set at the beginning for the rest of the session - and I really think the way he set up the session ensured all attendees continued an approach of meaningful openness and sharing throughout the morning. When you combine this with the concept of the ‘practice sharing' mindset, everyone was in the same ‘zone’ and very open about their experiences.
I was fortunate to be involved in two presentations at the event (one co-delivered with former DkIT student Olya Antropova; see titles in image below), and from the stage I could see amongst the audience that - unlike at some conferences - people were not on their phones etc. and appeared so engaged. I actually noticed this for every talk during the morning. Perhaps it was the interest and familiarity of the feedback topic to the group of academics, perhaps it was the tone set from the beginning by the organisers around practice sharing, and the keynote speaker - but most likely it is due to the synergistic combination of all three.
Leaving the session, I felt invigorated, motivated and inspired to continue my work with students on employing effective feedback. Like many, I’ve put a great deal of time in to innovating my practice around this, in particular engaging with students and using digital tools to support the process, but I know I need to continue listening, learning, innovating, and improving my feedback practice. Huge, HUGE, thanks to the organisers of the practice sharing event (Gerry Gallagher, Aidan Garvey, Breda Brennan and Moira Maguire at DkIT and to my fellow colleagues who presented on the day....and finally to the speaker of one of the best keynotes I’ve attended, Prof. Phillip Dawson). |
Ronan BreeEducation Developer,Science Lecturer, Archives
March 2023
Categories
All
Any opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
|