Dec 14 Feedback by design

1. Feedback designs to
promote dialogue
David Carless
University of Hong Kong
December 14, 2015
Open University of Catalonia
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2. Overview
1. The wider feedback picture
2. Principles of dialogic feedback
3. Online dialogic feedback
4. Issues & Implications
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3. SITUATING FEEDBACK
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4. Bigger picture
Feedback as
assessment design
issue
Feedback as a
pedagogical issue
Feedback as a
relational issue
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5. The University of Hong Kong
Productive assessment
task design
Understanding quality in the
discipline
Student engagement
with feedback
Learning-oriented assessment framework

6. Research process
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8. Merry, Price, Carless, & Taras (2013)

9. What does ‘feedback’ mean?
As dialogues around student work
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As comments …
Providing information about performance
AND/
OR

10. Defining feedback
“A dialogic process in which learners make
sense of information from varied sources
and use it to enhance the quality of their
work or learning strategies”.
Carless (2015, p.192) building on Boud &
Molloy (2013)
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11. Closing feedback loops
It’s only feedback
if students take
some action
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12. FEEDBACK AS DIALOGUE
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13. Dialogic feedback principles
• Process rather than product
• Prompting learner action
• Peers as active source of feedback
• Inner dialogue, internal feedback
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14. Key aim of feedback
To enhance student
ability to self-monitor
their work in
progress
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15. Dialogic feedback in practice
1. Teacher-facilitated dialogic feedback
2. Online dialogic feedback
3. Peer feedback and internal feedback
(Nicol, 2010)
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16. Assessment dialogues
Discussing assessment processes to help
students understand rules of the game
(Carless, 2006)
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17. Feedback designs
Activities in which students make judgments
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18. Exemplars & feedback
Analysis of exemplars can support students
in decoding teacher feedback (Handley &
Williams 2011; To & Carless, 2015)
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19. Guidance & feedback
Integrated cycles of guidance & feedback
within learning processes (Hounsell, 2007;
Hounsell et al. 2008)
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20. Model of guidance & feedback
Preparatory Guidance
-Clarifying task
-Engaging with criteria
-Analyzing exemplars
Student self-monitoring
-Seeking & using feedback
-Peer review
-Self-evaluation
Ongoing clarification
-Opportunities for practice
-Apply criteria
-Review work in progress

21. Cumulative task designs
• Task 1  feedback  interlinked task 2
• Position students as active feedback
seekers & users
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22. ONLINE FEEDBACK
STRATEGIES
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23. Learning Management Systems
Storing and accessing feedback comments
Prompting students to act on prior feedback
(before receiving more feedback)
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24. Use of Facebook
More attractive to students than Moodle
(Deng & Tavares, 2013)
History students uploaded drafts & received
peer feedback (Carless, 2015)
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25. Assessed blog
Business case: participation grade included
blog contribution
“Having a grading allocation … gives some
life to the blog” (Carless, 2015, p. 124)
Sense of cumulativeness vs stating own
opinion
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26. Non-assessed blog
Involved current students, past students and
practitioners in industry
“Students will treasure feedback if it
addresses their needs and interests”
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27. Audio (& video) feedback
Providing recorded verbal commentary
(instead of written feedback?)
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28. Audio feedback: pros
• Viewed positively by students (Lunt &
Curran, 2010)
• Shows concern; permits nuanced
feedback or detail (Savin-Baden, 2010)
• May resemble a dialogue (Nicol, 2010)
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29. Audio feedback: cons
• ‘Moderate’ impact on student learning
(Gould & Day, 2013)
• Difficult in failure cases
• Workload? (Hennessy & Forester, 2014)
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30. STUDENT ROLE IN SEEKING,
GENERATING & USING
FEEDBACK
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31. Peer feedback
Potentially more
plentiful …
But peers often viewed
as lacking expertise
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32. Composing peer feedback
Providing feedback more cognitively engaging
than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)
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33. Sustainable feedback
Enhancing student role to generate & use
feedback (Carless et al., 2011; Hounsell,
2007)
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34. SELECTED FEEDBACK
CHALLENGES
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35. Confusion over purposes
Student & staff confusions over purposes of
feedback and what it can achieve (Price et
al., 2010)
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36. Workload
Students (not staff) should work harder to
generate and use feedback
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37. Shifts in priorities
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Increase Decrease
In-class dialogic feedback within
course time
Unidirectional comments after
course completion
Written feedback comments on
first assessment task of module
Written feedback comments on
final task of module
Feedback for first year students Feedback for final year students

38. Failing to connect
Difficulties for lower achievers to make
sense of feedback (Orsmond & Merry, 2013)
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39. Implications
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40. Feedback literacy
Teachers need to
help students
understand
purposes of
feedback & how
they can use it
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41. Good feedback practice
Integration of feedback & task design;
Timely dialogues: online & peer feedback;
Development of student self-regulation for
sustainable feedback
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42. THANK YOU
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