Audio Feedback for Written Assessments.

1. Audio Feedback for Written Assessments. The way forward? Sandy George and Pete Hanratty ELTS, Swansea University

2. Rate the following sentences from1(strongly agree) to 5(strongly disagree) • Feedback is vital to learners’ progress. • Effective feedback should beconstructive and thought-provoking. • Students are more concerned with their grade than reading feedback. • The feedback process is too time consuming. • Feedback should be used as a basis for improvement rather than justification for a grade.

3. ELTS’ Pre-sessional Feedback Project • Trialled from July-September 2010. • Existing feedback system questioned in terms of: • Time it takes to complete. • Difficulty of giving clear and effective comments. • To what degree students actually read or take on board the comments.

5. ELTS’ Pre-sessional Feedback Project • 30 students took part in the trial. • Issued with self-assessment sheet to be used in conjunction with the teacher’s feedback. • Feedback spoken into a Dictaphone, and emailed to respective students. • Students required to complete self-assessment sheet and reflect on their writing. • Decide on three areas of improvement for future writing.

6. Results • 82% of students felt that this system made them more aware of their errors. • 100% of students found feedback easy to understand. • 100% said the teacher explained the nature of their mistakes. • Average writing scores of participants increased more than the other classes. • Comments often more accessible to students: less inclination to be overly verbose when speaking. • In conjunction with the self-assessment sheets, students encouraged to take greater responsibility and interest in own writing. • Speaking quicker than writing!

7. “My mistakes were pointed out and clearly explained in the audio. I played each audio feedback several times, not only had it helped a lot for my writing, but also it was a good chance to practise my listening” Pre-sessional student feedback, 2010

8. Implementation • Feedback should: • Be accessible, clear and practical. • Be geared towards improvement. • Be time-effective and student centred. • Set realistic targets.

9. Your summary of the main points was clear and concise, quoting the relevant sources. You covered section 1 and 2 of the question in detail, analysing the data effectively and making perceptive comments in each of the key areas for discussion. The final section was much briefer and omitted the evidence for X. consequently, you were unable to make a final judgement. Ensure that you allocate sufficient time to answer all parts of the question. Referencing! Not bad in most respects. Perhaps your range of referencing might possibly have been seen by some as veering towards the light side. If it were possible, you might like to consider extending these a teeny bit. You have obviously put a lot of effort into this work and have achieved some of the criteria well. Try to see if you can devote the same amount of effort to other aspects

10. Try This • Look at the lecturer comments in the essay. • How effective are they? • Could you improve them? • Would it have been easier to express your comments orally?

11. Next Steps • Pre-sessional 2011: • Repeat project – all classes • Student reflection sheets (not self-assessment) • Reflection sheets focus: plagiarism, referencing, critical analysis.

12. Thank You Question & Comments Sandy: 01792 606597 s.george@swansea.ac.uk Pete: 01792 606593 p.hanratty@swansea.ac.uk