This paper examines the impact of a novel assessment technique that has been used to improve the feedback given to second year Computer Science students at the University of Nottingham. Criteria for effective, high quality feedback are discussed. An automated marking system (The Marker's Apprentice--TMA) produces instant feedback in synergy with…

Higher education's ability to retain students through to graduation appears to be an international challenge. This is also the case in South Africa where only 27% of student complete their studies in minimum time and where 55% are unlikely to ever graduate. These challenges have meant that extended degree programmes, where degrees are formally…

Feedback has typically been studied as a means of improving academic performance. Few studies inquire into the processes by which feedback shapes student identity. The authors carry out a discourse analysis of written comments to explore how feedback is discursively constructed by both teachers and students. Analysis of written feedback,…

Despite assessment and feedback being important elements of the student experience, it is not clear how students connect these two elements together to improve their learning. What are students doing with the assignment feedback that they receive from tutors, and how do they make use of this feedback in their future assessments? A research study…

Many practitioner researchers strive to understand which assessment practices have the best impact on learning, but in authentic educational settings, it can be difficult to determine whether one intervention, for example the introduction of an online quiz to a course studied by diverse students, is responsible for the observed effect. This paper…

Existing literature shows students agree that active participation in the classroom is important and many want to engage. However, only one third regularly do so and previous studies have suggested that the vast majority of contributions in class may be made by a handful of students. The aim of this research was to explore from the student's…

This study aimed to assess if a module on an undergraduate degree programme had challenged students' perspectives on ageing and older adults. Courses on gerontology are on the increase within the UK to support increasingly ageing populations, with agendas to promote ethical care and to challenge the incidence of elderly abuse. Research…

Recent approaches to assessment and feedback in higher education stress the importance of students' involvement in these processes, where effective reception of feedback is as important as effective delivery. Many interventions have been developed to support students' active use of feedback; however, students' engagement will be influenced by…

In recent years UK universities have attracted an increasing number of international students. Their socialisation into different academic practices greatly depends on their ability to write in English since writing is the main way in which students demonstrate their learning at university. This paper looks into the widely-shared view that tutor…

Students' satisfaction with feedback and assessment has historically been low. This is confirmed by the most recent National Student Survey where feedback and assessment still remain the area of least satisfaction. Such projects as Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment (TESTA) attempt to tackle the issue by providing a channel…

Nowadays, higher education systems are being called to reconsider the aims of assessment if we want that students develop skills and competencies for their future personal and professional life. Although assessment holds an essential position in the higher education field, educational research still seems inchoative. Current studies, especially on…

In the Manchester Pharmacy School, we first adopted summative on-line examinations in 2005. Since then, we have increased the range of question types to include short answers, short essays and questions incorporating chemical structures and we achieve time savings of up to 90% in the marking process. Online assessments allow two novel forms of…

The discourses around feedback and assessment within higher education are often proliferated as critical to student learning, and attention to student (dis)"satisfaction" is often high on the agenda. As academics spend extensive time and effort on the production of summative feedback, this paper draws on the initial findings from a…

Southampton Solent University has been running the unit ENG195 Applied and Academic English Advanced for international students since 2008 as part of the Institution-Wide Language Programme. Following the implementation of a new employability strategy in 2013, the unit was revalidated in July 2014, which led to a major redesign of the curriculum…

This paper reports on and evaluates the use of concept mapping as a learning tool in a large first year Management course. The goal was to help students make personal sense of course learning and to build their understanding of links and relationships between key course ideas. Concept mapping was used for three summative assessment pieces,…