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Marks and Feedback

  • Online return of marks and feedback

    Summative assessment marks will be recorded via Banner Faculty Grade Entry, in accordance with the guidelines for academic staff.

    Each summative assessment event must be recorded in Blackboard Ultra within 20 working days of submission.

    Where a coursework element has different components, each of these attracts a mark and contributes to the final award. Each component and each mark must be recorded in Blackboard with the corresponding feedback. Further clarification as to individual module requirements can be obtained from assessments@ulster.ac.uk.

    Marks should be returned to all students within the given cohort on the same date, and the release of marks should be delayed until all marks are populated. Blackboard Ultra provides a Post Grades option to control release of marks.

    There are supported technologies which can be used for providing feedback digitally. Alternative feedback methods can still be used to support reasonable adjustments for both staff and students:

    • Blackboard Ultra Assignment
    • Turnitin
    • Both tools provide options to provide marks and feedback for an offline assignment
    • Other Blackboard tools such as graded discussions and journals

    The release of marks should be accompanied by the following statement:

    “Marks provided on Blackboard Ultra are subject to ratification by the Board of Examiners and may be subject to change. Please note that as these marks are provisional, they do not necessarily include any penalties applied for academic misconduct.”

    All assessment marks and feedback will be returned to students through Blackboard within 20 working days of submission. It is the Head of School’s responsibility to ensure that internal moderation is completed and that all marks and feedback are returned as per University policy.

    Students must be kept apprised by the HoS/AHoS (subject to the normal rules of confidentiality), as to why there is a delay to the return of feedback and marks.

    Associate Deans (AQSE) must be notified where feedback and marks are not returned during the 4-week period (20 working days). Each School must have a mechanism in place to monitor the operation of issuing summative feedback and marks, managed and updated by the School Office.

    This information will be centrally collected for quality purposes.

  • Feedback

    Feedback from simple formative/diagnostic or staged assessment strategies should be made available early in a module e.g., by week 4, to allow students to action plan for improved performance in the module and related modules.

    This early formative approach is particularly important during the first year.

    Digital feedback should be issued via Blackboard using methods described in 16.1. Students should receive an agreed set of general comments from internal markers and a single mark following moderation.

    Feedback should include transparent evidence of how the mark has been calculated through the associated assessment marking scheme and has addressed the stated learning outcomes.

    The feedback provided should always be consistent with the overall classification.

    The consequences of failure must be articulated clearly, and timely support opportunities must be identified. The use of rubrics and criteria help with generating aligned feedback.

    Further guidance on feedback:

  • Considerate marking and feedback

    The following guidance is influenced by the British Dyslexia Association to ensure that reasonable steps are taken during marking to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes.

    • Students should not be penalised significantly for minor errors that do not hinder the reader’s ability to understand the content of the academic written work. Marking schemes should minimise criteria weighting associated with spelling, grammar, and punctuation unless they form a competence standard. The weight of marking should focus on understanding of the subject content, reasoning, or other specialist skills, and coherence of expression.
    • Marking criteria/rubrics will be made explicit in the module handbook, module Blackboard area and during briefings. Criteria must be explained to students, so they are aware of the significance of their mark (and the consequences of any failure). Feedback comments will link to marking criteria where appropriate.
    • Constructive comments using a positive tone and straightforward language will be provided to identify strengths and areas for improvement or enhancement. Concrete examples should be offered, explaining how and why an expected standard has not been met.
    • Feedforward comments will be provided to encourage students to apply these enhancements and to work through their corrections independently. Comments may direct students to appropriate literature, lecture handouts or other learning resources, sources of information and mechanisms for support.
    • Where students have failed an assessment on a second attempt, a face-to-face tutorial should be provided.

    Additionally, Student Wellbeing has generated guidelines for marking assessments for students with disclosed Dyslexia. Consideration must also be given to SpLD students including delivering oral presentations to allow for difficulties with e.g., organisation, sequencing and fluency, and reading from notes.

    Where students have formally disclosed Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs), assessment feedback will explicitly state that it is written in accordance with Reasonable Adjustments.

    A standardised feedback statement is as follows:

    "The marker has provided feedback in accordance with assessment and feedback best practice and in recognition of your SpLD has not penalised significantly for minor errors that do not hinder the reader’s ability to understand the content of the academic written work."

  • Efficiencies with feedback

    Feedback should be effective and efficient, so staff should aim to devise methods which maximise the quality of feedback whilst minimising efforts on their part. Some suggestions are:

    • To develop a generic feedback document which addresses the assessment criteria associated with the work. Examples of good practice and common errors/weaknesses can be identified within the document. Individual pieces of work can then be annotated using e.g., a numbering system with individual students directed to specific points on the sheet. These sheets themselves can become a useful and important learning resource.

    If using Turn-it-in, these generic comments can be saved as Quick Mark comments and can be dragged onto the assessment and positioned in the appropriate location together with other commonly used feedback.

    Generic feedback sheets should also contain space for individualised comments.

    • Use of a feedback proforma that can be uploaded to Blackboard Ultra and that brings attention to the student’s strengths and weaknesses of their work (Appx 6).
    • Providing early feedback to the whole class within a timetabled slot, or online via a recorded session, to identify and explain common strengths and weaknesses. Students can then relate to this feedback when they review their own individualised written feedback. Written feedback may then be more streamlined as the whole group feedback provides detailed explanatory context.
    • Recording specific comments; more extensive specific comments can be given than in writing. Here, the tone of the voice can be a great support when explaining to a student the reasons why a poor grade was given. The Blackboard Ultra Assignment tool provides audio and video feedback functionality. This tool is very popular with students, and it can be a very efficient method of giving feedback. By using dictation functionality on your computer, you can transcribe the video/audio feedback to create written feedback at the same time.
    • Making use of tools in Blackboard Ultra including the Blackboard Assignment tool and Turnitin. Different tools offer different efficiencies through functionality such as reusable comments, general feedback, digital annotation and Rubric feedback.  The Centre for Digital Learning Enhancement (CDLE) can provide guidance to help select the most appropriate technology for your use case.
  • Engaging students with feedback

    Students should be encouraged to engage with the feedback process. Often this starts when students access their online feedback via the Blackboard Ultra gradebook.

    • Students should be able to question the comments and the mark given; they are more likely to be accepting of a lower grade if they are clear how and where they have lost/failed to achieve marks. Students must always be given the opportunity to come and discuss their work with the member of staff privately - even the best students may learn something from these discussions.
    • Feedback should facilitate and encourage self-assessment. For example, students could be invited to identify areas on which they would value feedback.
    • Some subject areas have found it useful to require students to provide an explanation of how previous feedback has been incorporated in a subsequent assignment. This is attached at the end of the piece of work.
    • Staff will also wish to consider the point in the module when it is no longer appropriate to continue providing formative feedback due to this providing an unfair advantage to students who request regular feedback on all edits of draft work. A 10% limit on draft work for formative feedback may be considered.
    • Staff should be reassured that offering to meet students to discuss their performance and feedback does not equate to the opening of a negotiation about the mark awarded. The programme regulations and appeals policy at Ulster do not allow for appeals against academic judgment.
    • Where a student has passed a module, they are not permitted to re-take the assessment to improve their mark (save for in cases of valid ECs where it may be reasonably assumed that operative circumstances at the time could have impaired student performance).
  • Giving feedback on written examinations

    University regulations state that “for the purpose of providing feedback on examination performance, candidates may be given access to examination scripts in the presence of a member of academic staff. Candidates are not permitted to retain examination scripts.”

    Students will benefit from gaining an understanding about why they achieved a certain result. This may be particularly true for failing students requiring resits. In such cases, the member of staff should run through the examination script with the student highlighting errors, good points, irrelevant parts of the answer, poor examination technique, etc. Under no circumstances should the student take the script away or be left alone with the script. Staff may find it useful to give such feedback generally to students to assist with examination technique.

    Group feedback on an exam may be generated within a timetabled slot, or online via a recorded session, to identify and explain common strengths and weaknesses.

    Markers and moderators are encouraged to put comments on examination scripts if and where appropriate.