Beyond the Technology: Rethinking assessment and feedback - unlocking the power of comparison based feedback

Professor David Nicol, research professor: teaching excellence initiative at the Adam Smith Business School, starts by taking us through the research they have undertaken into feedback, looking at what feedback students generate themselves when asked to compare their work against other types of information such as videos, textbooks or lecture notes, instead of a teacher’s comments.

David’s research found that students generate significant feedback on their own whilst also reducing the need for teacher comments. He then explains the three concepts behind the work at the university:

• All feedback is inner feedback - students are the protagonist of feedback
• All feedback is a result of a comparison process
• What students compare their work against determines the type of feedback they generate. Different kinds of information results in different kinds of feedback.

Suzanne McCallum, Lovleen Kushwah and Dr Nick Quinn then speak about the methods they are using to bring this comparison based feedback approach to life, sharing how they have found it so far and the feedback they have had from students.