Student’s Experience Of Feedback Practices And Recommendations For Improvement

There have been numerous research studies and recommendations as to what feedback should look like to improve student learning and the learning experience. These recommendations include being timely, fed forward, provided using different modes and sources and to support students to know how to best use the feedback they are given. The Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is currently focusing on improving the quality, effectiveness and delivery of feedback provided to their students on their learning and demonstrated achievement in a variety of settings. This paper reports the first stage of this project where students were asked about their previous experience of receiving feedback, how they are able to use it and their preference as to the type and timing of the feedback they prefer. Students reported feedback was often was non-existent, extremely limited, nonspecific, or too late to be useful. They found feedback was most useful when it was specific, could be used for improvement and was not just focused on correction.