audio feedback – better feedback?
DESCRIPTION
Feedback has long been identified as a problem by staff and students alike. While students often complain that they are not getting enough detailed feedback that is relevant to future work, staff feel they are investing a lot of time and work into providing feedback that is not collected or not acted upon. Increasingly, the use of audio feedback is seen as a means to tackle some of these problems.TRANSCRIPT
Audio feedback – better feedback?*
Susanne Voelkel & Luciane V. MelloSchool of Life Sciences
*funded by the eLearing Steering Group, UoL
“Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning
and achievement”*
* Hattie & Timperley, 2007
Effective feedback answers 3 questions*:
• Where am I going? – (the goals)
• How am I going?– “feed-back”
• Where to next?– “feed- forward”
* Hattie & Timperley, 2007
Good quality feedback – students’ view*
• Detailed information on how to improve• Applicable to future work• Personal• Timely
* Student focus group, School of Life Sciences
But…. all is not well!
UoL
Can audio feedback help us provide better feedback?
Research questions
• Will audio feedback– Work?– Save staff time?– Increase student satisfaction?– Help students learn better?
Research design
• Two case studies– Undergraduate level– Postgraduate level
1. The undergraduate level project
• Year 3, class size 70• Low stake (10%) essay, exam conditions
(handwritten)• Class split randomly in half– 50% written feedback (comments)– 50% audio feedback (bullet points on script)
• Evaluation
2. The postgraduate level project
• M-level module• Class size 14• Group work assessment– Individual component– Purely formative
• All students receive audio feedback only• Evaluation
Methods
• Recording the feedback– Mobile digital voice recorder– Audio files (mp3 format)– Measure time (UG)
• Dissemination– By email
• Listening to the feedback– Mp3 player or computer
Evaluation
• Questionnaire– Response rate• 44% undergraduate• 93% postgraduate
• Interviews (10, UG)• Marks (UG)
Did it work? The technical side.
• No problems from staff or student side
Did audio feedback save staff time?
Time (min) Standard deviation
N
Audio feedback
16 + 8 31
Written feedback
11 + 3 31
Significant difference (p=0.002)
Did audio feedback increase student satisfaction?
After reading/ listening to my feedback, I fully understand my mark
written
audio
Postgrad
0 20 40 60 80 100
agreeneitherdisagreeUnder-
graduates
I understand what I need to do to get a better mark in the future
written
audio
Postgrad
0 20 40 60 80 100
agreeneitherdisagreeUnder-
graduates
The amount of feedback I got was
written
audio
Postgrad
0 20 40 60 80 100
definitely not enoughnot really enoughjust righttoo muchUnder-
graduates
The feedback I got was detailed enough
written
audio
Postgrad
0 20 40 60 80 100
agreeneitherdisagree
Under-graduates
My feedback was clear
written
audio
Postgrad
0 20 40 60 80 100
agreeneitherdisagreeUnder-
graduates
Written comments on audio feedbackUndergraduates
“It (the audio feedback) was very personal, I knew exactly what I had to do to make my mark better”
“…written feedback means that you have it there just to look at all the time and it’s a bit harder to go back and look at the audio feedback”
“you get a lot more honest opinion about (your work) and a lot more information I think on how to improve”
Written comments on audio feedbackPostgraduates
“Audio FB was very useful, I strongly feel more lecturers should adopt it as part of their teaching methods”
“Audio FB was fantastic and more detailed than just writing a few lines in text format”
Effects on student learning?
59.5
60
60.5
61
61.5
62
62.5
audiowritten
Ave
rage
mar
k (%
)
Formative Summative
Feedback
Research questions – the answers
• Will audio feedback– Work? yes– Save staff time? no– Increase student satisfaction? yes– Help students learn better? perhaps
Thank [email protected]