Newly appointed academics’ experiences of marking. Written feedback: A foreign language that is lost in translation. The creation and use of an online staff development resource

Sales, Rachel; Hadland, Rachel

Abstract

As with many other HEI's within the United Kingdom, external examiners continue to praise the feedback that is given to students and yet this is not reflected in national student experience surveys. Indeed according to Price et al (2011), students have become progressively disengaged with feedback due to perpetual and repeated unsatisfactory feedback experiences as they progress through their university courses. Additionally, other data suggests that students do not identify with assessment criteria and feedback due to a lack of understanding of their meaning and academic expectations (Higgins et al 2001).

The primary aim of the ‘written feedback’ project is to enhance and transform feedback practices of academics' through the use of computer simulations that capture and reflect students’ interpretations and reactions to written assessment feedback.

The majority of learning resources for academics are developed by academics whereas this project has active student engagement throughout to ensure that the staff development resource is co-created by academics and students. The primary aim of this innovative project is to enhance the quality of written feedback given by academics, through highlighting how written feedback can be interpreted in many different ways. This will be done through computer simulations using avatars to capture and reflect student interpretations and reactions to written assessment feedback.

The secondary aims of the project are to:

• Create an online resource that can be used to explore and explain the terminology often used in written feedback in an attempt to move academics away from using terms that are not easily understood
• Use the created resource for student assessment workshops and road shows to help bridge the different perceptions and understanding of written feedback
• Highlight the emotional impact that giving and receiving written feedback has on both the student and the academic.

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: Nurse Education Today 2013
• Start Date: Sep 3, 2013
• End Date: Sep 5, 2013
• Publication Date: Sep 3, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: academics, foreign language, translation, online, staff development
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1436119
• Publisher URL: http://www.jillrogersassociates.co.uk/previous-events.html#top
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Nurse Education Today 2013