Assessment and feedback for economics students: without drowning...

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Assessment and feedback for economics
studentswithout drowning...

• Peter Smith
• University of Southampton
• Associate, Economics Network

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Context

• National Student Survey
• Low scores for feedback
• across institutions and disciplines
• Transition to university
• from A-level to undergraduate
• Formative vs. summative assessment
• importance of incentives
• Increasing student numbers
• the tyranny of marking and providing feedback

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Assessment and feedback are inextricably linked

• The nature of assessment methods used determines
  the type and effectiveness of feedback
• Good feedback improves student achievement on
  assessments
• but can be costly as student numbers increase

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Assessment should be designed to

• be effective
• needs to assess intended outcomes
• be efficient
• in terms of staff time
• enable good feedback
• to improve performance in future assessments

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Effective assessment

• Discriminating in assessing outcomes
• Knowledge understanding
• Application of economic thinking
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Graduate attributes
• Expression
• Problem-solving
• Teamworking
• etc.

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Effective feedback

• Gulf between what students want..
• and what we want to give them
• It is important to manage/influence expectations
  
• and to raise awareness of what is meant by
  feedback
• and when students are receiving it.
• Use student-friendly language

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What students would likebased on a survey of
c.600 students at Southampton

• Most effective feedback
• detailed written feedback (hard copy or online)
• NOT mark only/brief/delayed
• Timeliness
• Neutral between marks brief comments after 2
  weeks cf. detailed comments after 3 weeks
• 1 Published deadlines for marks feedback to
  which staff adhere
• 2 Feedback available in time to improve next time
• 3 Consistency across schools programmes

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What students would like for their feedback(2)

• Quick turn-around
• More detailed/explanatory
• Legible
• Positive
• Consistent
• Individual tutorials

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What students do not like

• Results displayed on noticeboard or grades only
• Brief general feedback
• Group feedback
• Written anonymous feedback
• Delayed feedback

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Efficient assessment can we avoid drowning?

• MCQ
• Economics Network Question Bank
• http//www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/qnbank/
• Technology-enhanced marking
• podcasts of answers/common errors
• statement banks
• Group work
• http//www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/development
• Standardised tick-box forms
• Masterclasses to replace seminar groups
• TA marking
• Peer assessment
• blogs?

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Peer assessment(with thanks to Judith Piggott
(Oxford Brookes))

• Weekly tasks counting 10 of overall grade
• In seminar/class sessions
• Carefully-designed questions marked by each other
  before the end of the session
• Then moderated (by TAs)
• Improves attendance
• Gives students a different perspective on marking
  feedback