A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
Nationally the National Student Survey data suggest that whilst most students are satisfied with their undergraduate degree programmes there remains significant room for improvement with respect to assessment and feedback. In 2012/3 I was awarded a HEA Teaching Development Grant to explore issues of assessment literacy with respect to students and staff in Mathematics at the University of Exeter. Broadly the work consisted of three strands on which I will report and I will discuss the strategies and tools developed via this project that are leading to a better understanding of assessment marking and feedback amongst students and staff.
The first strand saw student interns develop resources to help their peers understand better what standards are expected in their degree programme. A key output here has been the development of a database of marked work to help students understand better the judgements that their markers make regarding work at different levels.
In the second strand a group of students considered the quality of feedback on marked work and through a series of questionnaires and focus groups with students at Exeter and other universities they drew up a list of recommendations for improving feedback which were presented to staff in a series of workshops.
The final strand considered whether we were effectively supporting our students in learning from the various elements of feedback that they were receiving and having considered this we decided to redevelop our first-year tutorial system to make more extensive use of group work peer feedback and reflection.
