A Technology Enhanced Approach to Improving Feedback Satisfaction

John MorisonSchool of Computing

j.morrison @napier.ac.uk

This presentation aims to communicate the experience of providing multimodal feedback using screen capture software. For a fuller explanation of the method I have uploaded a report onto the ALT conference platform.

An investigation into using screencast-video as a means of producing feedback delivered via the Moodle gradebook

Quiz! What feedback criteria is the most important

for effective learning?

1: feeds-forward (future relevant).

What criteria is the most importantfor feedback to feedforward effectively?

- The timeliness of Feedback

- Personalised and detailed - Learning focused feedback

Does the format that feedback is produce and delivered in, impact on its effectiveness? i.e. does it influence its capacity to capture the

characteristics of good feedback?

Can you think of any technologies or methods from the conference themes that can harness these criteria more effectively than standard

written feedback in your own domain ?

Feedback 2.0: An Investigation into UsingSharable Feedback Tags as Programming Feedback

Dr. Stephen Cummins

Aims to investigate how new forms of feedback can improve student learning of programming and how feedback sharing can further enhance the students’ learning experience.

https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/education/research/Thesis-Cummins-01-01-2011.pdf

Screen Capture video feedback

Quicktime X Mac OS X 10.6 Snow

Leopard and later

Free Screen Capture software

Jing by TechSmith

Free Screen Capture software

http://www.screenr.com/

Free Screen Capture software

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/feedback.html

Delivery to students Moodle 2.4 Gradebook

The Moodle Gradebook proved to be a useful tool for delivering the video feedback to students, allowing media files to be attached in the feedback area.

Bar graph to illustrate student perceptions of feedback presented as screencast-video.

What the students thought

“This is the best feedback I ever had. And I mean both the medium and the message.”

“This form of feedback is absolutely perfect for such a module, parts of our video that John wished to discuss we're simply just clicked to so we immediately knew what was being talked about, it helped so much and will be very useful for future work.”

“A breakdown of where we were lacking marks and why would be helpful as well as where we picked up our marks.”

“Personally I think all feedback should be given in this form. It was both much personal and informative. With feedback in the past there has often been parts I haven't fully understood however hearing the feedback alongside viewing the specific parts of the assessments as the feedback is being given made everything very simple to understand and left me feeling completely satisfied with what was said.”

What the students thought

Future Studies Other possibilities for future studies include a closer analysis of Links between students’ individual learning style and their preferred method of feedback. Including those of dyslexic students and students with English as a second language.

Screen capture video provides opportunities for students to generate rich formative feedback for each other.

The study also generated some new questions regarding whether students would be willing to share their personal feedback with the rest of the class, which is an area with lots of potential to explore in the future.

The repertory grid technique

Compared to alternative research methods considered, RGT has the twofold advantage of firstly generating holistic, qualitative results that allow people to express their views by means of their own constructs, not ones projected onto them by the pre-set questions typical in alternative methods.

Secondly, they contain a degree of quantitative data, via the elements in relation to the constructs, which can be analysed in a number of visually rich formats.

The repertory grid technique

15 of the most frequently elicited modal constructs aggregated as a focus graph.

Feedforward quadrant in an aggregated pingrid of 15 of the most frequently elicited modal constructs.

The repertory grid technique

Conclusions

Whatever format feedback is produced and delivered in, it should have the characteristics of good feedback i.e. feedforward, be timely, detailed, relevant to the learning outcomes and assessment criteria and learning-focused (Brown, 2006).

I would encourage you to try out alternative methods of feedback in your own disciplines, at the very least this can be partly responsible for constructing a dialogue of improvement between staff and students regarding feedback practices.

Any questions?

John MorisonSchool of Computing

j.morrison @napier.ac.uk

Further Readinghttp://digitaliteracy.co.uk/

Further Reading

http://sites.google.com/site/soundsgooduk/http://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/

Audio Feedback

Screen capture feedback

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/

Stephen CumminsSharable

feedback tags

https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/education/research/Thesis-Cummins-01-01-2011.pdf

ReferencesBlack, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998b) Assessment and classroom learning, Assessment in Education. , 5(1), 7–74 .

Brown, E (2006) Effective feedback. The Open University. Retrieved 20h July 2012 from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/CommentaryArticles.htm

Cummins, S. (2010) Feedback 2.0: An Investigation into Using Sharable Feedback Tags as Programming Feedback. Durham University

Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 3-31

HEFCE. (2011). Eight out of 10 higher education students give their courses top marks. Retrieved 18th July 2012 from http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2011/name,62304,en.html

Moore, S. (2011). Multimedia Learning: Multimodal Design. University of Virginia. Retrieved 31st December 2012 from http://www.jmu.edu/ttac/wm_library/Multimedia_UDL_Moore_JMU.pdf