Dr Robert Hatch shared initial findings from his project: ‘Feedback Action Tracker’ at the last meeting of the Digital Assessment and Feedback Thematic Peer Group.
At the core of the Feedback Action Tracker project is the idea that feedback is a dialogue and a loop, with a strong relationship between how an assignment is created and how students prepare for it; how students produce assignments, their performance is reviewed, feedback is given, and how students integrate it into future assignments. However, current assessment practice is not achieving this ideal feedback loop in many cases.
There are current challenges, such as students not processing feedback effectively and technological limitations during advisor-student meetings, as well as students’ ability to access earlier feedback on QMplus and taking it forward.
Robert’s intervention focused on developing and piloting what he called a Feedback Action Tracker on QMplus. This took place as a formative exercise for students in SBBS and the goal was to find how feedback can be improved. As 70% of students did not engage with this formative exercise, Robert is reflecting on how to best integrate the activities the pilot covered in the curriculum, making them summative rather than formative, for example.
The pilot had interesting findings. Pilot lessons are a wish list of platform features to support feedback, such as:
Watch the 10-minute presentation below (requires QMUL log in).
Feedback Tracker Initial Findings Robert Hatch (2).mp4
Discussions following the presentation focused on the use of portfolios to encourage student reflection, the exploration of portfolio-based assessments in apprenticeships and non-apprenticeship programs; going beyond the current intervention, there was a discussion about the need for programmatic assessments and feedback design, exploring the challenges of integrating such an approach across modules.