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Making and Feedback Guidelines in Biosciences
15 August 2023
Making and Feedback Guidelines in Biosciences
To improve feedback in Biosciences Streatham, Dr. Alan Brown and Katie Solomon introduced marking and feedback guidelines for 2021/2022. By setting out expectations for feedback, the guidelines aim to standardise the quality of feedback, and to provide a clear framework against which moderation of feedback can be performed. It is not necessarily about increasing the amount of feedback. Rather, the primary goal is to ensure that feedback across all assessments is of a consistently high quality and that it is helpful to the students. The guidelines also aim to clarify the expected balance between in-text comments (i.e. annotations on the submitted work itself) and the typed feedback summary within BART.
The guidelines were also communicated to students so they know what to expect from feedback, accompanied by guidance on how to interpret and act on feedback received on ELE.
The introduction of this approach saw a significant uplift in then Biosciences Streatham NSS scores from 2021 to 2022:
|
NB. % scores show the % of students who agree with the relevant statement. |
Biosciences 2021 |
Biosciences 2022 |
CLES 2022 |
Uni 2022 |
||
|
Assessment and feedback |
8. |
The criteria used in marking have been clear in advance |
69.2% |
72.1% |
67.1% |
65.1% |
|
9. |
Marking and assessment has been fair |
61.6% |
70.6% |
64.9% |
67.6% |
|
|
10. |
Feedback on my work has been timely |
45.1% |
64.0% |
61.9% |
62.1% |
|
|
11. |
I have received helpful comments on my work |
60.5% |
74.3% |
63.8% |
66.2% |
|
|
|
Category average |
59.1% |
70.2% |
64.4% |
65.2% |
|
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Dr. Alan Brown is Senior Lectutere in Molecular Microbiology and Co-Director of Education and Student Experience (DESE) in Biosciences. He is a molecular microbiologist interested in mechanisms of virulence and niche adaptation in pathogenic bacteria. Research programmes within his group are focused on defining how such mechanisms impact on host-microbe interactions during infection, with the aim of using this knowledge to guide the rational development of novel antimicrobial strategies. He is member of the Biochemistry & Molecular Microbiology research group.
Katie Solomon in Senior Lecturer in Biosciences and Co-Director of Education and Student Experience (DESE) in Biosciences.