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Providing feedback

About this topic

Feedback is an important part of the learning and teaching relationship between academic staff and students.

The way staff deliver feedback helps to promote students’ learning and encourages them to perform well in their studies. Improving the feedback given to students can therefore be a positive focus for improving academic performance, as well as enhancing students’ overall experience of university.

This topic provides information on three key areas of providing feedback:

Feedback practices

These vary by discipline and within disciplines, yet there are a wide range of different formats and types of feedback that can be used to deliver effective feedback to students.

Formats include written, audio or video feedback, feedback provided in lectures, seminars and tutorials including that given under guidance by other students, and feedback on formative and summative assessments.

Assessment literacy

This refers to the ability of students to interpret assignments and assessment criteria appropriately, and make full use of feedback provided on their work.

The concept of literacy encourages a focus on what makes assessment and feedback meaningful. This usually means developing a shared understanding between staff and students of assessment and feedback practices.

Good feedback practice

Good feedback helps students to improve their learning and understanding. It focuses efforts by identifying shortcomings and advising on ways to address them. It should also seek to point out strengths.

Good feedback is timely, delivered in a constructive style, and is usually supplemented with opportunities for clarification.


Case Studies

Reflecting on reflections

Dr Kate Gilliver

Published 21 Jul 2021 • 15 mins read

This presentation from the 2021 Learning & Teaching Conference talks about what reflective writing as an assessment has revealed about the student experience of active learning in a pandemic.


Topics

Ways of learning | Designing for distance learners | Engaging with student feedback | Assessment design | Providing feedback | Supporting Placement Learning |

Recommendations icon2 recommendations

Using Video in Assessment - Video Case Study

Professor Angela Devereux

Published 19 Apr 2017 • 11 mins read

Professor Devereux shares her experience of using video in assessment in the Centre for Professional Legal Studies.


Topics

Providing feedback

Recommendations icon1 recommendations

The opportunities of Panopto within the School of Music

Dr Daniel Bickerton

Published 17 Oct 2019 • 19 mins read

Dr Daniel Bickerton of the School of Music describes how he used Panopto within the School of Music to enable students to evaluate their performances following assessments and receive feedback


Topics

Assessment design | Managing assessments | Providing feedback |

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Peer review of exemplar work

Dr Andrew Roberts

Published 21 Jul 2021 • 15 mins read

This presentation from the 2021 Learning & Teaching Conference talks about how peer review of exemplar work allows students to compare their work to that of others and helps them to engage with the assessment criteria. Exemplar review was used as


Topics

Ways of learning | Learning journeys | Designing for distance learners | Engaging with student feedback | Assessment design | Managing assessments | Providing feedback |

Recommendations icon1 recommendations

More than just quizzes and word-clouds?

Dr Craig Gurney and Jessica Clement

Published 16 Jan 2020 • 9 mins read

In this talk Dr Craig Gurney and Jessica Clement demonstrate the extent and variation in audience response tool usage at Cardiff University and reflect upon some frequently articulated issues in their adoption and use.


Topics

Ways of learning | Engaging with student feedback | Providing feedback |

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Does it count? Undergraduate engagement with formative mathematics assessment

Dr Matthew Pugh and Dr Robert Wilson

Published 16 Jan 2020 • 12 mins read

In this case study, Dr Matthew Pugh and Dr Robert Wilson discuss the successes and short-comings of changing from a continuous assessment approach to placing greater emphasis on formative exercises in the School of Mathematics.


Topics

Ways of learning | Assessment design | Managing assessments | Providing feedback |

Recommendations icon1 recommendations

Cardiff Resources

Assessment and Feedback: Working with students

Dr. Kirsten Hamilton-Maxwell

Published 06 Apr 2017 • 7 mins read

A short presentation showing how Dr Hamilton-Maxwell has been engaging her students in the feedback process within the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences.


Topics

Assessment design | Providing feedback |

Recommendations icon1 recommendations

Marking, grading and giving feedback

Published 19 Apr 2017 • 20 mins read

This set of materials is intended to provide guidance and support for those who are new to assessing and giving feedback and who are asked to implement an existing assessment process.


Topics

Assessment design | Providing feedback |

Recommendations icon17 recommendations

An on-line support resource for PGRs new to the teaching role

Dr Kate Exley

Published 20 Apr 2017 • 20 mins read

This resource aims to help postgraduate research students gain confidence, knowledge and skills in their new teaching role.


Topics

Small group teaching | Large group teaching | Providing feedback |

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External Resources

ASKe Oxford Brookes Assessment Literacy Guide

Oxford Brookes

Published 19 Apr 2017 • 12 mins read

An external resource from Oxford Brookes providing guidance and advice on how to stage pre-assessment intervention to support students' assessment literacy.


Topics

Providing feedback

Recommendations icon2 recommendations

ASKe Making peer feedback work in three easy steps!

Oxford Brookes

Published 20 Apr 2017 • 12 mins read

An external resource by Oxford Brookes giving guidance on how to lead a student peer review session.


Topics

Providing feedback

Recommendations icon1 recommendations

Contribute to the Learning Hub

The Learning Hub is designed by academics for academics and we would encourage you to share anything that supports, enhances or prompts reflection on teaching and learning here at Cardiff University.

This is an opportunity to be an active part of the teaching community here at Cardiff, to share your expertise with your colleagues.