Even though feedback should relate to the learning outcomes and the aims of the assessment, there is a fundamental difference between feedback and justification of the mark given.
The main contrast is that the justification of the mark focuses on what the student did right or wrong, to justify the grade; feedback focuses on what the student needs to do to sustain and/or improve their achievement level.
Feedback and justification of the mark are often conflated together, but are fundamentally different from each other. Justification looks backwards, whereas feedback looks forwards.
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A further point to mention is the timeliness of feedback.
Feedback needs to be provided at a point where it will be of maximal use to the student to change their learning activity. This means that feedback provided at the end of an assessment is potentially limited in its impact. This dimension of feedback will be discussed more in Module AF2.
Activity: Play the video which suggests some easy hints to providing impactful and accessible feedback.
Some of these may be approaches you are already using, are there any new ideas that would be worth adopting for your own practice?
REFLECTION ACTIVITY
Consider how accessible the feedback you share with your students is.
Activity: Review feedback you have provided for students, how clear is the key message underpinning it?
Think about the key messages or ideas you want to put across, the order of them, the language used, and to what extent the students would know what you are trying to say.
Note down some examples of feedback you feel were particularly clear, or possibly obscure. How would you change the latter, if you were to deliver a similar message again in future?
Note: The process we have just asked you to undertake should be precisely the journey that your students should be making regarding their own work. Your feedback should facilitate this reflection.