Case Study - Feedback Innovation in the Australian School of Business (ASB)

Tags:teaching, elearning, assessment, feedback, marking, case studies

Assisted by ITIP funding, ASB eLearning trialled in 2010 and 2011 the use of Re:View software to improve marking and feedback experiences of academics and students; and to provide data for assurance of learning (AOL) purposes.

This page provides a summary of the ASB experience and an outline of the progress of this local innovation toward eventual integration of the software in enterprise level infrastructure for technology enabled learning and teaching.

Educational purpose

Re:View is an online criterion-based assessment and feedback system developed at UTS to facilitate marking and provide criteria-based feedback to students. It also links course based assessments to program learning goals or graduate attributes, so that these can be 'mapped'. Students can self-assess their submission against the criteria and subsequently view their self-assessment along with the marker's assessment for each criterion.

Advantages

In this video Dr Gigi Foster from ASB discusses with Danny Carroll (also from ASB) the advantages of using the Re:View program.

    Advantages include:
     
  • Convenience of using an online system that is criterion-based and handles group assignments well.
  • Improved access to data from multiple tutors.
  • Time efficiencies for staff.
  • Benefits for students in terms of self-assessment.

Re:View does not replace Blackboard or the official University administration system that provides marks and grades for subjects at the end of each semester. However marks that are recorded in Re:View can be readily 'synced' into Blackboard. Re:View can be connected to LDAP and University student systems so that student enrolments are automatically provisioned.

Outcomes of trial

In 2010 and 2011, Re:View was used by 3,206 students and 64 academics in 20 ASB courses, including mid-sized enrolment courses (300 plus), and has demonstrated potential for up-scaling to large (2000 student) cohorts.

Outcomes of the trials indicated that Re:View met the project benchmarks for improving efficiency in course assessment and as outlined below, provided a range of benefits for academics and students and for tracking graduate attribute formation. Results have been shared with faculty at several presentations in 2010-11 and University Learning and Teaching Forum events in 2011. All academics involved in the 2010 and 2011 trials indicated they will reuse Re:View in 2012 and the faculty is committed to ongoing access.

A summary of achievements in terms of marking efficiencies, quality assurance, benefits for students and research opportunities arising out of the use of Re:View is provided in this audio interview between Dr Gigi Foster and Dr Greg Ryan from the Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU):

(Mp3 audio file, 7.6mb, 8:16mins)

Benefits

Perceived benefits of Re:View for academics and students:

Academics

  • Saved substantial amounts of time (up to 30% in some cases) in marking.
  • Provided online access and record for students, all tutors, coordinator.
  • Helped coordinate large teaching teams - facilitates an assessment 'community'.
  • Data from Re:View supports learning and teaching related research approaches.
  • Improved moderation and benchmarking processes across teaching team.
  • Was particularly supportive for inexperienced junior academic markers.
  • Provided timely 'targeted' feedback to students.
  • Encouraged Students to focus on feedback rather than the mark.
  • Developed students' self-evaluation and assessment awareness skills.
  • Promoted criteria focused approaches to marking.
  • Demonstrated efficiency (time-saving) in the marking process.
  • Appreciated the ubiquitous access via a web-based interface.
  • Benefited from the tracking of data, allowing for dynamic comparisons.

Students

  • Seeing the criteria they were being assessed against.
  • Being able to self-assess their performance against the criteria.
  • Receiving timely feedback via the web once the assessment feedback was published.
  • Students commented negatively on having a separate sign on for Re:View and stated a preference for having feedback 'pushed' to their email.