Article 3 Media II

This article describes the positive effect of instant feedback techniques on Computer Science students at the University of Nottingham.  Students from the previous school year did not receive the feedback, while the following year students did receive immediate feedback mechanisms.  These students made 35% fewer common mistakes on a subsequent exercise than the previous cohort.  ‘The Marker’s Apprentice’ (TMA) produced the feedback which was instantly generated for student submissions.  The TMA used in the study pointed out the lines of bad code in a particular program and offered a link to a short tutorial of the concepts missed.  The feedback was of high quality and purposely not specific to the exercise so there is some effort needed by the student to complete their code.  The author points out that students need high quality feedback which should be: timely, informative, reliable and consistent, clearly communicated, specific, and useful for teachers.  

Submissions made using TMA did not count towards student’s grades and were used as formative assessments.  There was a pre-submission of work and a post-submission of work which averaged to about a 24.6% improvement in student scores which averaged in the mid 80%’s.  Great results, but it does not show that a deep understanding has taken place of the material.  Students who engaged in the feedback had work that led to improved performance compared to students given feedback on drafts.  The author also points out that automated assessment is not a replacement for staff-student interaction, or just a way to save time.

I think this article verifies a couple of key points about providing assessment.  First it points out how beneficial it is to students to receive immediate feedback and resources while the material is fresh in thought.  When feedback is not timely students will often forget where they may have been in their thought process and it does not entitle them to closure in their understanding of a particular concept.  Using digital tools for formative assessments can greatly benefit students to receive this immediate feedback and aide in their understanding.

The second point I wanted to make was that the feedback needed to be meaningful.  It doesn’t do a student any good if their feedback does not make any sense or provide a resource to aid in understanding.  The feedback should be informative, reliable and consistent, clearly communicated, and specific.  Students should not be trying to play a guessing game when trying to figure out where they may have gone wrong on a particular problem.  It should be clear cut and provide useful, productive explanation.  I think the use of a digital tool like google forms helps make this much easier for teachers when providing formative assessment feedback.  

Nutbrown, S., Higgins, C., & Beesley, S. (2016). Measuring the impact of high quality instant

feedback on learning. Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 10(1), 130-139.

Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1129863.pdf