Student-Staff Partnerships to Enhance Assessment and Feedback

Huser, C. , O'Connor, L., Pishia, M., Hammond, J., Crawford, L. and Britten, A. (2020) Student-Staff Partnerships to Enhance Assessment and Feedback. AMEE 2020, Online, 7-9 Sept 2020.

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Abstract

Background: The University of Glasgow has recently launched a student-staff partnership scheme to improve assessment and feedback. Two grants were successfully secured to improve the guidance provided to students for the Medical Independent Learning Exercise (MILE), as well as the feedback for that assessment. Summary of Work: Following the MILE assessment, a set of online questionnaires and focus groups were run by the student partner, and the data analysed using thematic analysis. The resulting themes were used to create “tips for writing assessment guidance”, as well as a list of five “feedback criteria” for lecturers to use when marking. These tips and criteria were then applied to the MILE in the subsequent academic year, as well as the equivalent assessment on the Veterinary Medicine course, and to a different piece of coursework on the MBChB course. Additionally, another student-staff project was undertaken to develop peer-review guidance, for students peer-reviewing formative MILE assessments. Summary of Results: Focus groups with students, lecturers and markers were run to collect data on the transferability of the tips for writing assessment guidance and feedback criteria. Focus groups were also undertaken to establish the peer-review guidance needs and to evaluate the resource created. The results showed that the tools created by the student partners were generally transferable to other courses and assessments. The benefits and limitations of these tools will be presented. Discussion and Conclusions: Student-staff partnerships have been very effective in our Medical School to undertake small education research projects and generated tools that can be used to improve assessment and feedback in their own discipline as well as others. Including students in the research gave staff a better understanding of student needs, and led to the inclusion of guidance and feedback criteria which would not have been generated otherwise. Take-home Messages: - Including students in strategies to improve assessment and feedback is an effective and rewarding strategy, leading to the creation of rich tools; - Following tips to write assessment guidance ensures that staff attend to all student needs; - Applying feedback criteria when marking ensures higher quality and more consistent feedback across markers.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Pishia, Ms Michaela and Crawford, Dr Lynsay and Hammond, Professor Jennifer and Britten, Dr Amanda and O'Connor, Mr Lewis and Huser, Dr Camille
Authors: Huser, C., O'Connor, L., Pishia, M., Hammond, J., Crawford, L., and Britten, A.
Subjects:L Education > L Education (General)
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing
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