Effective feedback practices
Helen Puntha and Wendy O'Neill

Summary
Effective feedback can be defined as any summative or formative, formal or informal feedback which enables students to close the gap between their current level of knowledge and performance and the desired standards. Feedback is an issue of key importance in HE for the following reasons:

• Feedback has been identified as a powerful influence on student learning.
• Student satisfaction with feedback is low nationally and within NTU compared to other aspects of the student experience.

Introduction and discussion of effective feedback
Feedback and assessment have long been acknowledged as powerful influences on student achievement and learning (Hattie 1987, Gibbs and Simpson 2004, Hughes 2011). This resource will focus on effective feedback and, in so doing, will include discussion of,

• Intrinsic feedback and the relationships between assessment and feedback
• Student engagement with intrinsic feedback
• Feedback as a dialogical process

In order to identify what effective feedback is, it is necessary to consider what good feedback does, or ought to do. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2004, p. 2) have identified seven principles of good feedback, it:

1. Facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection in learning)
2. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning
3. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards)
4. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance
5. Delivers high quality information to students about their learning
6. Encourages positive motivational believes and self-esteem
7. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching

In order to have this kind of impact we can consider the work of another influential writer in the area, Graham Gibbs. Gibbs (2010) has identified the qualities which are important in feedback as:

• Sufficient feedback needs to be provided both often enough and in enough detail
• Feedback should focus on students’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the students’ control, rather than on the students themselves and on their characteristics
• Feedback should be timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or receive further assistance
• Feedback should be appropriate in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing
• Feedback needs to be received and attended to
• Feedback should be provided in such a way that students act on it and change their future studying

Feedback can be divided into two main types, that which is concerned with justifying or explaining a judgement (sometimes called summative feedback) and that which is developmental advice (sometimes called formative feedback). Clearly these two types can occur together and either can be given from a tutor to a student, a student to another student (peer feedback or peer assessment) or from a student to themselves (self-assessment or self evaluation).

This resource will focus on effective feedback practices, particularly the types of feedback which, ‘… empower students to become self-regulated learners, able to make their own appraisals of the work they produce, both during and after its production’ (Nicol 2010, p. 1). There is a discussion of the importance of intrinsic feedback supported with reference to case studies from across NTU; the value of dialogue in feedback is also a topic of discussion.

Other resources

• The REAP (Re-Engineering Assessment Practices in Higher Education) project at the University of Strathclyde has a website which provides resources for teachers and senior managers in higher education wishing to redesign assessment and feedback based on a self regulation model. The main goal of the project was to encourage the development of students’ ability to monitor, manage and self direct their own learning. There are links to practical ideas such as one minute papers, case studies of course redesigns and the student focussed Feedback is a Dialogue campaign as well as further expansion on the assessment and feedback principles as used at Strathclyde University.
• A framework and principles for feedback and assessment in the first year can be found in a keynote paper by David Nicol (lead on the REAP Project) on the University of York website
• The FAST (Formative Assessment in Science Teaching) legacy website contains a number of case studies, commentary articles and investigative tools to explore effective formative feedback. Most resources are transferable to disciplines outside Science
• The University of Reading Engage in Feedback pages provide ideas, tools and resources to enhance feedback
• The Open University Challenging Perspectives on Assessment contains presentations relating to elements of assessment and feedback including developing a more holistic approach and understanding staff-student interaction in the context of feedback
• The Higher Education Academy website contains a number of resources relating to feedback practice
  Please be aware that NTU policy should take precedence in any situation where external guidance or practice conflicts with NTU policy.

References
GIBBS, G., 2010. Assessment patterns that fail, and that work. Available at: http://www.testa.ac.uk/resources/best-practice-guides/96-revised-assessment-patterns-that-work[Accessed 19 April 2011].

GIBBS, G and SIMPSON, C., 2004. Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 3-31. Available at: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/library/r71034_39.pdf [Accessed 15 May 2011]

HATTIE, J.A., 1987. Identifying the salient facets of a model of student learning:
a synthesis of meta-analyses, International Journal of Educational Research, 11, 187-212.

HUGHES, G., 2011. Towards a personal best: a case for introducing ipsative assessment in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 36(3), 353 — 367

NICOL, D., 2010. Four recent papers on assessment and feedback with significant implications for practice, QAA Scotland Enhancement Themes: Graduates for the 21st Century. Available at: http://www.reap.ac.uk/reap/public/Papers/DN_AssessmentFeedback_230210.pdf [Accessed 15 May 2011]

NICOL, D. and MACFARLANE-DICK, D., 2004. Rethinking formative assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice. In: JUWAH, C., MACFARLANE-DICK, D., MATTHEW, R., NICOL, D., ROSS, D and SMITH, B., 2004. Enhancing Student Learning through Effective Feedback, Higher Education Academy Generic Centre. Available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id353_senlef_guide.pdf [Accessed 15 May 2011]

NTU Regulations and Guidance
Programme and module spec
Programme design
The Academic Standards and Quality Handbook has guidance on feedback requirements in Section 15H and includes reference to the recent changes.

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