3 Grading assignments and providing feedback to students
When used to support learning, assessment acts as a powerful teaching tool. Coupled with feedback, it helps students to improve their learning and achieve better outcomes and it can also act as a source of encouragement and building confidence.
Students will be required to undertake formal written assignments during the programme. Grading your students’ assignments and giving clear feedback on their written work is an important way of providing them with personal learning support. It helps over time to establish the teaching and learning relationship with your students and acts as a powerful teaching tool when you are grading your students’ learning (particularly if the grade is a low one). The feedback you give on each assignment should help the student understand what she should have written to get a better grade, but it should also identify and praise good points in her answers.
Providing individual written feedback for each student has a number of purposes; for example it helps:
- to act as a driver and a focus, giving information to your students on areas the curriculum leaders think are important and the standards expected
- to structure students’ learning
- to give them frequent opportunities to assess and improve their learning and achieve better outcomes
- to encourage your students and build their confidence.
As a blended learning tutor, providing feedback on written assignments enables you to:
- explain something that your student has not understood
- facilitate skills development by providing examples to your student
- help your student attain learning outcomes for each session and/or Module
- individualise the learning experience and, if it connects with your student, make it personal to her and acknowledge her uniqueness
- be flexible in your responses to the different learning needs of each student
- provide space for reflection, encouraging your student to think about both how well something has been written and how well a learning outcome has been achieved
- to identify the next steps in learning
- help every student to identify her strengths and weaknesses
- help the student to look ahead and identify her mid-term and long-term learning goals
- involve each student in self-assessment by requiring her to answer self assessment questions in each study session, write her answers in her Study Diary, (and where appropriate to discuss them with you in study support meetings).
2.1 Study Diaries