At Level 2, there is a lot of anxiety from students about progressing into Honours, and getting the minimum grade (B2) which guarantees you entry into Honours Psychology. Many students who come to Glasgow with the intention of studying Psychology as their main degree find that by level 2 they are maybe not quite at the level required of them.

Student anxiety about how to improve their grades was a driving factor in implementing the approach. Students would question their grades and were struggling to interpret their feedback constructively. This was becoming very labour intensive, as students would question their feedback with the markers.
To mitigate this demand, and to encourage students to engage with their feedback, the students were asked to complete reflective exercises before meeting with staff to discuss their feedback. Initially developed by Lorna Morrow and Niamh Friel as part of an LTDF bid in 2014-15, the exercises encourage students to work through their feedback independently before seeking advice.
Initially this was implemented online, but not all students were engaging with the online exercises, so the reflective tasks were built into the curriculum.

This form of assessment encourages students to:

• reassess their feedback in advance of their upcoming assessment
• target areas where they require improvement
• develop a portfolio of feedback, which they could use to track their development as they go through the degree

The reflective exercises were implemented in several ways:

• Online via Moodle and Mahara.
• Voluntary sessions were set up, where the students could come to discuss their feedback with their peers and tutors, and highlight areas they could improve on in the future.
  • The sessions covered ways that you could apply your feedback to upcoming assignments, and used real examples of student work from previous years.
  • These sessions were run with the help of the Student Learning Service (now LEADS).
• In class reflective exercises using YACRS.
• Reflection was also incorporated into the feedback process.
  • When submitting their work, the students were asked to identify areas that they have ‘worked harder’ on from past assignments, and ask for specific areas that they would like ‘additional feedback’ on.
• The email sent to the students with their grades included a link to the generic feedback, a summary of the reflective exercises, and the availability of the marker for a marking surgery. All of the information about feedback is in the same email.
  • If the students want to discuss their grade with their marker, they have to re-read the feedback, re-read the report writing guide on Moodle, and then read a journal article. They need to complete the reflective exercises before the meeting.

• This approach has been adapted for the Level 1 course, so the incoming students will be familiar with the process.
• The students used a classroom response system to post their thoughts on the in-class reflective exercises. The results indicated that the students were confused and reluctant to go through work for past assignments, and wanted to discuss issues that were relevant to upcoming assignments instead. In the future, this feedback will be adapted in the workshop structure, so that students have an opportunity to look at how they will plan their upcoming assignments based on previous feedback.
• There were a few issues that came up in using YACRS for open-ended questions. Possible solutions include designing the questions differently, or using an alternative system.
• After implementing the reflective exercises, a smaller number of students questioned their feedback.
• The reflective exercises were more successful in engaging students than the workshops, which could be developed further. Students who have just completed Level 2 could contribute to the design of the workshops.
• The workshops will be a timetabled class in the upcoming academic year, so the attendance should increase significantly.

Approach would scale to different class sizes. The reflective exercises would be implemented during lab sessions or smaller workshops, and the email correspondence could be sent out in both large and small groups.

Approach would be appropriate in any course where the students would benefit from reflecting on their feedback.

• 2015 Feedback Sheet
• Generic feedback 2A lab report
• Generic feedback 2B lab report
• Guide on using feedback comments
• Lab report marking rubric
• Report-writing presentation
• Report-writing seminar
• Report-writing tutorial activities

Morrow, L (2014-15) LTDF Report Using Mahara to improve students' perceptions of, and ability to effectively utilise, feedback on assessment.
O’ Donovan, Rust & Price (2015) From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), pp.501-507.
Nicol, D (2010) A scholarly approach to solving the feedback dilemma in practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.