Abstract: Exploring alternative methods of providing assessment feedback: using audio technology to feed-forward to help student development

Background and rationale

The 2009 student survey identified feedback as a major concern of students (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2009). The majority of student effort has been found to be geared towards assessment (Carless et al., 2006) but the feedback that academics provide may not be effectively used by all students (Higgins et al., 2002). One of the advantages of audio feedback is that it seems especially suited to feed-forward as a supplement to written assessment feedback that may only focus upon what the student has done. This project will pilot the use of individualised, audio recorded feedback to students, to supplement the standard written feedback.

Methodology/process

The research group will recruit a sample of 10-12 second year nursing students who are willing to trial receiving audio feedback from their assignments and to participate in audio-recorded focus groups of approximately one hour, on three occasions. The focus group facilitators will be the research group’s two student members. The initial focus group will explore the students’ experiences of the standard written assessment feedback, their responses to the idea of audio feedback and what they would want in the audio feedback. After their next assignment submission, the two academic researchers will provide audio feedback to the focus group members as well as standard written feedback. The second focus group will explore their experiences of receiving audio feedback, its emotional impact on them and effect on their learning and preparation for their next assignment. The third focus group will be held following the next assignment submission to explore students’ perceptions of how the audio feedback helped their learning and their next assignment development. The focus group data will be transcribed professionally and analysed thematically. The project will be value for money as it is a pilot study to investigate use of audio feedback on a small scale before making a major investment. The academic researchers’ time will be supported by the university and the focus group facilitators will be paid as research assistants.

The aim of this pilot study is to explore nursing students’ experiences of audio feedback for assignments and its impact on their learning and development.

The objectives are:

• To achieve an in-depth understanding of students’ experiences of assignment feedback and its emotional and psychological impact
• To explore students’ perceptions of audio feedback for assignments, both before and after their actual experiences
• To investigate students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of audio feedback for providing detailed individualised feedback
• To make recommendations for how audio feedback could be applied across a nursing curriculum in the future.
• To develop good practice guidelines in providing audio feedback to students