Effective feedback methods to improve student confidence and learning outcomes in Computing
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Computing Sciences
Abstract
This project aims to understand the causes of student dissatisfaction within the NSS results in Higher Education within the UK. The project will specifically focus on the assessment and feedback category in these results.
The research will involve analysis of factors leading to student dissatisfaction and investigate potential solutions that HE institutions can employ to improve student perceptions and experiences of assessment design and teacher feedback. This effort will include reviewing findings from previous studies outlined in the pedagogical literature of Higher Education as well as collecting primary data from staff and students at Newcastle University as a case study. The output of the project will be the development of a tool that gives clear, personalised feedback on performance to students and also provides guidance on how they can make improvements in their learning
The research will involve analysis of factors leading to student dissatisfaction and investigate potential solutions that HE institutions can employ to improve student perceptions and experiences of assessment design and teacher feedback. This effort will include reviewing findings from previous studies outlined in the pedagogical literature of Higher Education as well as collecting primary data from staff and students at Newcastle University as a case study. The output of the project will be the development of a tool that gives clear, personalised feedback on performance to students and also provides guidance on how they can make improvements in their learning
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ryan Crosby (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509528/1 | 01/10/2016 | 31/03/2022 | |||
| 1763906 | Studentship | EP/N509528/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2019 | Ryan Crosby |
| Description | To achieve the key findings the following data was used. - A modified version of the Assessment Experience Questionnaire (Gibbs and Simpson 2003) was given to stage one and stage two students, across three academic years; 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019. In total there were 852 responses. - Using feedback criteria developed from the literature, historical data were analysed, there were 942 pieces of feedback analysed to investigate the quality of feedback given to students and to see if the quality of the feedback matches the perceptions of the students. The key findings up to this point are as follows - Students find consistency, both within their own feedback and with the feedback of other students vitally important, and often find it lacking within the feedback they receive. - In our institution, the students do not trust graduate researchers to give feedback. Often preferring help of the module leader and expecting the module leader to review all feedback. - Students find that feedback comes too late too be useful and struggle to see the connections across assignments and modules. - Students are heavily mark focused. Despite the first year in the degree programme not counting towards the students' final classification, marks are still the priority with feedback being used to identify where marks were lost as opposed to using feedback to improve practice. I developed a system to be used by students which focused heavily on personalising quizzes and allowing students to see which small areas they were weakest on. It also allowed goal setting to track improvements while keeping the content small and specific. Feedback from the system - Students did not like the content that was difficult and went beyond the course material - The goal-setting and personalisation helped students track their learning. - The students found that it was difficult to find programming tutorials and quizzes outside of their lecture materials therefore it was nice to have it in one place. |
| Exploitation Route | To take this forward in the future it would be wise to investigate the link between student dissatisfaction and the trust of graduate researchers with regards to giving feedback and marking coursework. Staff should also be consulted in their views of ipsative assessment and its usage in classrooms. The system could also be taken forward with more personalisation aspects. A priority for future work is to turn the website into a mobile application for use on the go with students. |
| Sectors | Education |
| Title | Computing Ipsative Assessment |
| Description | This software is to deploy ipsative assessment with students, it will be used within first year modules, a masters 'introduction to programming' module. The aim is to understand the impact of ipsative assessment on the student learning experience, |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | The system will be used in the upcoming academic year |