Threshold Standard: Assessments and feedback are clearly presented

Assessment and Feedback: Introduction

Students expect assessment briefs and grading criteria to be readily available for all assessments, and have immediate and flexible access to feedback and marks when they are released. To achieve this:

1. Provide the assessment criteria and arrangements for coursework submission at the start of the module, including as a screencast or equivalent accessible medium
2. Articulate how, when and in what format students can expect to receive feedback on their work
3. Ensure submission points are correctly set up in Blackboard for coursework assessments and they match the type and number of assessments in SITS
4. Provide an interactive question and answer facility via a blog, discussion board or similar for each assessment
5. Use Grade Centre to publish provisional marks to students
6. Provide feedback on each coursework assessment task to students through Blackboard

Assessment and Feedback 1. Provide the assessment criteria and arrangements for coursework submission at the start of the module, including as a screencast or equivalent accessible medium 

Information about the assessments for the module, including a rationale, briefs and marking criteria, should be available to the students when the module commences. Doing this will enable students to plan their workloads more effectively and will also assist them in identifying where past feedback is relevant to future assessments. Additionally, it will allow them to identify connections and similarities between assessments, enabling them to plan personal development to improve their work. A screencast or equivalent explaining the assessment, the critera and submission method should also be published alongside the assessment itself.

Further guidance:

• How do I create a Feedback Rubric?
• How do I associate a Feedback Rubric with an Assignment or Grade Centre Column?
• Getting started with Screencasting

Assessment and Feedback 2. Articulate how, when and in what format students can expect to receive feedback on their work

The Assessments area of your site should be used to provide students with information on assignments and tests which are to be completed either online or as physical submissions. This information should include how the students will receive feedback on their work, and when they should receive their feedback (the University has a 3 week feedback turnaround policy). For example, if an assignment is to be submitted as a physical copy but with feedback and grades being provided online by a certain date, students should be told of this through information in the Assessments area of your site.

If you already use the Assessment Scheduler/Diary to inform students of key dates for submissions and feedback, it is recommended that you provide a link to it within the Assessments area of your site. Doing this means that all the information students need in order to undertake an assignment can be found in one location, and ensures the date information is accurate.

Assessment and Feedback 3. Ensure submission points are correctly set up in Blackboard for coursework assessments and they match the type and number of assessments in SITS

Please ensure that submission points in Blackboard accurately reflect the assessment information to which they relate and correct any discrepancies as soon as possible. Starting in 2017/18 academic year, many assessment submission points will be created automatically based on assessment data in SITS, including ones for most coursework submitted online or at a helpdesk. Some special types of online coursework like test, blogs, wikis and PebblePad submissions cannot be set up automatically and you will need to set those up yourself (as well as any assessments where the data was not inputted into SITS ahead of the automatic creation). You should double-check that the due dates are correct for automatically created assessment items, and ensure that any assessment briefs and necessary attachments are included in them too.

Further guidance:

• How do I set up an area for students to submit online?
• How do I deploy a test in Blackboard?
• Support with PebblePad

Assessment and Feedback 4. Provide an interactive question and answer facility via a discussion board, blog or similar for each assessment

This is addressing a specific request from learners collated via the course representatives. When all modules have such; it will provide the critical mass required to drive usage by learners, provide a repository of questions and answers, directly useful to learners, that is more efficient for staff, helpful for activities such as refining assessments and whilst not a panacea it should help to reduce email traffic. This could be created using many different tools and positive results have been obtained from discussion boards, blogs, Padlet, Google/Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Teams, among others.

Further guidance:

• How do I create a new discussion board?
• How do I add a blog for students to share their thoughts with classmates?
• How can I use Padlet?

Assessment and Feedback 5. Use Grade Centre to publish provisional marks to students

Whether you have asked students to submit assignments electronically through Blackboard or as physical copies (or a combination of both methods), using Grade Centre allows you to return marks (and optionally feedback) to your students. This allows you and your students to keep track of their grades and feedback online, and allows the student to discuss their progress with their academic adviser before the end of the module.

A Grade Centre column is created automatically for some Blackboard tools such as tests and assignments when they are set up. In addition, standard Grade Centre columns will be set up for exams automatically from 2017/18 academic year. You can add new columns as needed. It is recommended that Grade Centre is used to consolidate the provisional marks of all assessments in order for students to be able to review their progress on the module throughout the year.

Further guidance:

• Setting up and managing the Grade Centre

Assessment and Feedback 6. Provide feedback on each coursework assessment task to students through Blackboard