Why is assessment feedback so useless?
I want to preface this by saying I absolutely do not envy university staff at all, I'm sure their workload is way bigger than many of us give it credit for and they try their best to help us succeed with whatever gets thrown at us, but I really can't help but feel that assessment feedback is unbelievably poor if not unacceptable.
My recent marks have been 62 and 65, which I'm not very proud of as I hold myself to a very high standard, but with 62 being such a low mark you would imagine there would be plenty of suggestions for improvements and feedback in the comments, right?
Virtually nothing. Single word responses usually ranging from "good" to "interesting" and about 2 critical comments in total, one of which criticised a section of my abstract in which I go into detail on my initial thoughts and feelings when approaching the project we were doing throughout the year. We were told to do this at the start of the module and that it would be an essential part of our abstract, yet the comment says it isn't relevant. The only other critique simply says "go into more detail" which isn't useful nor does it highlight any of the issues with that part of the assessment. So after losing out on 38 marks, the only suggestions for improvement I have are to remove a section of my assessment which I was literally told to include, and to go into more detail on one specific paragraph, whatever that's supposed to mean.
This has been a reccuring theme for many of my assessments, both from first year and this year, and I can't help but get increasingly frustrated with how unhelpful these comments tend to be. I understand that I can get in touch with the person who marked my work to ask them to elaborate on what I could improve, but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary when the entire point of marking the assessment is to provide feedback. This combined with the continuous strikes (a very necessary thing, but frustrating for students who spend absurd amounts of money on their studies) has just left me feeling disappointed with my second year.
Perhaps I'm overexaggerating the issue since I'm upset with my marks, which ultimately is my fault more than anything else, but even after the feeling of disappointment has passed I still feel like assessment feedback is lackluster at best and provides very little for me to consider when approaching my assessments next year.
My recent marks have been 62 and 65, which I'm not very proud of as I hold myself to a very high standard, but with 62 being such a low mark you would imagine there would be plenty of suggestions for improvements and feedback in the comments, right?
Virtually nothing. Single word responses usually ranging from "good" to "interesting" and about 2 critical comments in total, one of which criticised a section of my abstract in which I go into detail on my initial thoughts and feelings when approaching the project we were doing throughout the year. We were told to do this at the start of the module and that it would be an essential part of our abstract, yet the comment says it isn't relevant. The only other critique simply says "go into more detail" which isn't useful nor does it highlight any of the issues with that part of the assessment. So after losing out on 38 marks, the only suggestions for improvement I have are to remove a section of my assessment which I was literally told to include, and to go into more detail on one specific paragraph, whatever that's supposed to mean.
This has been a reccuring theme for many of my assessments, both from first year and this year, and I can't help but get increasingly frustrated with how unhelpful these comments tend to be. I understand that I can get in touch with the person who marked my work to ask them to elaborate on what I could improve, but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary when the entire point of marking the assessment is to provide feedback. This combined with the continuous strikes (a very necessary thing, but frustrating for students who spend absurd amounts of money on their studies) has just left me feeling disappointed with my second year.
Perhaps I'm overexaggerating the issue since I'm upset with my marks, which ultimately is my fault more than anything else, but even after the feeling of disappointment has passed I still feel like assessment feedback is lackluster at best and provides very little for me to consider when approaching my assessments next year.
62 isn’t a low mark.
If you want more feedback then talk to your tutor/academic support services to arrange additional study skills and feedback sessions.
If you want more feedback then talk to your tutor/academic support services to arrange additional study skills and feedback sessions.
As someone who takes a lot of time and effort over giving feedback, here's the other perspective. Students frequently do not even look at the feedback. They just check out the % and move on. Knowing that doesn't stop me working to my own personal high standards.
That said, I think this sounds like poor feedback and so when you do your module review, make sure to mention it. You can also mention it in the NSS survey when you do it. Both of those metrics will be noted and acted upon.
Beyond that, I would ask for addiitonal verbal feedback (or via email) as tutors always offer this - it's not an empty gesture. so take it up.
Go in a positive frame of mind - not to challenge or try and change your mark - but to get more detailed feedback on how you can improve your work.
And as @PQ says 62% is not a low mark.
That said, I think this sounds like poor feedback and so when you do your module review, make sure to mention it. You can also mention it in the NSS survey when you do it. Both of those metrics will be noted and acted upon.
Beyond that, I would ask for addiitonal verbal feedback (or via email) as tutors always offer this - it's not an empty gesture. so take it up.
Go in a positive frame of mind - not to challenge or try and change your mark - but to get more detailed feedback on how you can improve your work.
And as @PQ says 62% is not a low mark.
(edited 11 months ago)
Original post by cheadle
As someone who takes a lot of time and effort over giving feedback, here's the other perspective. Students frequently do not even look at the feedback. They just check out the % and move on.
^^^ This. Its deeply frustrating to see students make the same mistake again and again when its clearly flagged as an obvious thing to improve in the feedback. Yes, some fraction of feedback can be sub par, but it's usually the reverse, students need to really enguage with both the broad brush and detailed comments - however painful - if they really want to improve.
BTW I have referred academic staff to our Head of Dept for a telling off for sub-par feedback, so many of us really do care about getting this right. Your uni will have a process for dealing with this kind of thing, e.g. through your course rep or a head of a lab / module, teaching committee etc.
(edited 11 months ago)
Original post by Anonymous
I want to preface this by saying I absolutely do not envy university staff at all, I'm sure their workload is way bigger than many of us give it credit for and they try their best to help us succeed with whatever gets thrown at us, but I really can't help but feel that assessment feedback is unbelievably poor if not unacceptable.
My recent marks have been 62 and 65, which I'm not very proud of as I hold myself to a very high standard, but with 62 being such a low mark you would imagine there would be plenty of suggestions for improvements and feedback in the comments, right?
Virtually nothing. Single word responses usually ranging from "good" to "interesting" and about 2 critical comments in total, one of which criticised a section of my abstract in which I go into detail on my initial thoughts and feelings when approaching the project we were doing throughout the year. We were told to do this at the start of the module and that it would be an essential part of our abstract, yet the comment says it isn't relevant. The only other critique simply says "go into more detail" which isn't useful nor does it highlight any of the issues with that part of the assessment. So after losing out on 38 marks, the only suggestions for improvement I have are to remove a section of my assessment which I was literally told to include, and to go into more detail on one specific paragraph, whatever that's supposed to mean.
This has been a reccuring theme for many of my assessments, both from first year and this year, and I can't help but get increasingly frustrated with how unhelpful these comments tend to be. I understand that I can get in touch with the person who marked my work to ask them to elaborate on what I could improve, but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary when the entire point of marking the assessment is to provide feedback. This combined with the continuous strikes (a very necessary thing, but frustrating for students who spend absurd amounts of money on their studies) has just left me feeling disappointed with my second year.
Perhaps I'm overexaggerating the issue since I'm upset with my marks, which ultimately is my fault more than anything else, but even after the feeling of disappointment has passed I still feel like assessment feedback is lackluster at best and provides very little for me to consider when approaching my assessments next year.
My recent marks have been 62 and 65, which I'm not very proud of as I hold myself to a very high standard, but with 62 being such a low mark you would imagine there would be plenty of suggestions for improvements and feedback in the comments, right?
Virtually nothing. Single word responses usually ranging from "good" to "interesting" and about 2 critical comments in total, one of which criticised a section of my abstract in which I go into detail on my initial thoughts and feelings when approaching the project we were doing throughout the year. We were told to do this at the start of the module and that it would be an essential part of our abstract, yet the comment says it isn't relevant. The only other critique simply says "go into more detail" which isn't useful nor does it highlight any of the issues with that part of the assessment. So after losing out on 38 marks, the only suggestions for improvement I have are to remove a section of my assessment which I was literally told to include, and to go into more detail on one specific paragraph, whatever that's supposed to mean.
This has been a reccuring theme for many of my assessments, both from first year and this year, and I can't help but get increasingly frustrated with how unhelpful these comments tend to be. I understand that I can get in touch with the person who marked my work to ask them to elaborate on what I could improve, but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary when the entire point of marking the assessment is to provide feedback. This combined with the continuous strikes (a very necessary thing, but frustrating for students who spend absurd amounts of money on their studies) has just left me feeling disappointed with my second year.
Perhaps I'm overexaggerating the issue since I'm upset with my marks, which ultimately is my fault more than anything else, but even after the feeling of disappointment has passed I still feel like assessment feedback is lackluster at best and provides very little for me to consider when approaching my assessments next year.
Hi there!
I hear what you’re saying, it can be frustrating to get a mark you are disappointed with and not really know why. I want to start off by saying that 62 and 65 are not bad marks at all, especially at university level, but I do get it. Personally, I’ve had those marks before and wasn’t happy at first until it was explained to me that it was actually a promising grade and how different university level is to what I did before.
I would say that the best way forward is to approach the tutor and ask for clarification. I would also say to go over over the marking criteria, this helps me a lot to hit some points that I might not have otherwise!
Emily
First Year Creative Writing Student
What I can do when my feedback is saying that I did answer all main tasks, explained theories assesmets format is not commented at all.
Lack of detail is mentioned, also marker says I did not explained fully types of data when I did, structure had better then other person who got mark 69%, referenced correctly and in general understanding and application of theory on examples been done, had conclusion did not use world GDPR talk about this without using short name of GDPR marker comment was I did not mentioned anything about GDPR, GOT 33%
and had a comment should attend more lessons.
33 is fail when I did answer right questions in general understanding of topic meeting learning outcom but been graded 33%
Can anyone advise what to do?
Is this normal that feedback is provided by email without original submitted documents to be able to see what exactly is wrong from the marker position, is this normal practice to do not give feedback on student work as I am not clear on if this feedback is really for me or maybe there is some mistake as it's not matching grade percentage at all.
Lack of detail is mentioned, also marker says I did not explained fully types of data when I did, structure had better then other person who got mark 69%, referenced correctly and in general understanding and application of theory on examples been done, had conclusion did not use world GDPR talk about this without using short name of GDPR marker comment was I did not mentioned anything about GDPR, GOT 33%
and had a comment should attend more lessons.
33 is fail when I did answer right questions in general understanding of topic meeting learning outcom but been graded 33%
Can anyone advise what to do?
Is this normal that feedback is provided by email without original submitted documents to be able to see what exactly is wrong from the marker position, is this normal practice to do not give feedback on student work as I am not clear on if this feedback is really for me or maybe there is some mistake as it's not matching grade percentage at all.
Original post by Anonymous
What I can do when my feedback is saying that I did answer all main tasks, explained theories assesmets format is not commented at all.
Lack of detail is mentioned, also marker says I did not explained fully types of data when I did, structure had better then other person who got mark 69%, referenced correctly and in general understanding and application of theory on examples been done, had conclusion did not use world GDPR talk about this without using short name of GDPR marker comment was I did not mentioned anything about GDPR, GOT 33%
and had a comment should attend more lessons.
33 is fail when I did answer right questions in general understanding of topic meeting learning outcom but been graded 33%
Can anyone advise what to do?
Is this normal that feedback is provided by email without original submitted documents to be able to see what exactly is wrong from the marker position, is this normal practice to do not give feedback on student work as I am not clear on if this feedback is really for me or maybe there is some mistake as it's not matching grade percentage at all.
Lack of detail is mentioned, also marker says I did not explained fully types of data when I did, structure had better then other person who got mark 69%, referenced correctly and in general understanding and application of theory on examples been done, had conclusion did not use world GDPR talk about this without using short name of GDPR marker comment was I did not mentioned anything about GDPR, GOT 33%
and had a comment should attend more lessons.
33 is fail when I did answer right questions in general understanding of topic meeting learning outcom but been graded 33%
Can anyone advise what to do?
Is this normal that feedback is provided by email without original submitted documents to be able to see what exactly is wrong from the marker position, is this normal practice to do not give feedback on student work as I am not clear on if this feedback is really for me or maybe there is some mistake as it's not matching grade percentage at all.
Feedback is given in different ways. If it was a Turnitin assessment, feedback is usually incorporated into the work, though not always. I would expect as a minimum a formatted feedback sheet with assessment criteria and detailed comments, usually uploaded to the relevant VLE. Emailing feedback is generally frowned upon because it does not log the feedback into the system.
I can't fathom your points about the work itself. 33% is a clear fail and the work must have fallen short in several major ways.
Original post by cheadle
Feedback is given in different ways. If it was a Turnitin assessment, feedback is usually incorporated into the work, though not always. I would expect as a minimum a formatted feedback sheet with assessment criteria and detailed comments, usually uploaded to the relevant VLE. Emailing feedback is generally frowned upon because it does not log the feedback into the system.
I can't fathom your points about the work itself. 33% is a clear fail and the work must have fallen short in several major ways.
I can't fathom your points about the work itself. 33% is a clear fail and the work must have fallen short in several major ways.
I did submitted assesmets via Tutirin, but assessment never been graded on there, from any module... I can't understand why this is not used, my feedback does not sound professional, been ignored by student support, notice that my submission download on that day and feedback with score from Tutirin does not even match!
We are only provided grade via email, no Tutirin submission attached to feedback to be able to see what is wrong...
How I can assume that the assignment checked was mine if Tutirin score does not match even ??
Module leader does not replay since 30.05 send emails to student suport, again to leader, making circle nothing about it, no clarification, not first time grades are not correct the same assignment other student totals been added not correctly which affect grading work she did it's not only my issue, and I did study before, getting 40%. Pass it's not so difficult to get really... I am sure of that.
Can anyone advise or had similar experiences
There are two separate issues here.
First, the feedback arrangements do sound poor. The lack of Turnitin feedback worries me less (not all tutors use it) what bothers me is the apparent lack of a standardised feedback sheet breaking down the assessment criteria to show how the final grade has been arrived at.
The second issue is the poor follow up on getting further feedback.
I'm at a loss to advise here. Perhaps you could appeal the result on the grounds that you do not believe that the work has been properly assessed?
I also think, as it sounds like others may be similarly affected, that this should be taken to the Student Rep who will take it to the Programme Leader.
First, the feedback arrangements do sound poor. The lack of Turnitin feedback worries me less (not all tutors use it) what bothers me is the apparent lack of a standardised feedback sheet breaking down the assessment criteria to show how the final grade has been arrived at.
The second issue is the poor follow up on getting further feedback.
I'm at a loss to advise here. Perhaps you could appeal the result on the grounds that you do not believe that the work has been properly assessed?
I also think, as it sounds like others may be similarly affected, that this should be taken to the Student Rep who will take it to the Programme Leader.
Original post by Anonymous
I did submitted assesmets via Tutirin, but assessment never been graded on there, from any module... I can't understand why this is not used, my feedback does not sound professional, been ignored by student support, notice that my submission download on that day and feedback with score from Tutirin does not even match!
We are only provided grade via email, no Tutirin submission attached to feedback to be able to see what is wrong...
How I can assume that the assignment checked was mine if Tutirin score does not match even ??
Module leader does not replay since 30.05 send emails to student suport, again to leader, making circle nothing about it, no clarification, not first time grades are not correct the same assignment other student totals been added not correctly which affect grading work she did it's not only my issue, and I did study before, getting 40%. Pass it's not so difficult to get really... I am sure of that.
Can anyone advise or had similar experiences
We are only provided grade via email, no Tutirin submission attached to feedback to be able to see what is wrong...
How I can assume that the assignment checked was mine if Tutirin score does not match even ??
Module leader does not replay since 30.05 send emails to student suport, again to leader, making circle nothing about it, no clarification, not first time grades are not correct the same assignment other student totals been added not correctly which affect grading work she did it's not only my issue, and I did study before, getting 40%. Pass it's not so difficult to get really... I am sure of that.
Can anyone advise or had similar experiences
I’m in a similar position and I’m in my final year, my module leader doesn’t give constructive feedback and ignores emails. I got a low grade in the assessment yet I followed all feedback and even went to get feedback numerous times. I don’t know what to do because I may lose my scholarship because of it.
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