Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments

Student dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of feedback received on their performance is a recurrent feature of student surveys (Scott, 2005; Williams & Kane, 2008). The study described here sets out to address this issue in a sustainable way, working within the context of the shortans...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yorke, Jon, Gibson, William, Wilkinson, Heath
Other Authors: N/A
Format: Conference Paper
Published: University of Technology Sydney 2010
Online Access:http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/atnassessment/authors-and-presentation.html
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18100
_version_ 1848749647574597632
author Yorke, Jon
Gibson, William
Wilkinson, Heath
author2 N/A
author_facet N/A
Yorke, Jon
Gibson, William
Wilkinson, Heath
author_sort Yorke, Jon
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Student dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of feedback received on their performance is a recurrent feature of student surveys (Scott, 2005; Williams & Kane, 2008). The study described here sets out to address this issue in a sustainable way, working within the context of the shortanswer assessment format. The primary aims of this study were to reduce the time needed to mark work and to improve the quality of feedback received by students, without recourse to the kind of automated approaches that lack the personal dimension of assessor judgment. To achieve this, a prototype marking software was developed during 2009, and a preliminary trial was conducted in 2010 with 25 students responding to a quiz comprising 25 questions. Online marking using this tool was completed in a third of the time taken to mark the work conventionally some 10 weeks previously. Further investigation revealed additional (and in some cases serendipitous) advantages relating to moderation and administrative efficiency, suggesting that rapid feedback can be provided without overloading academic staff with repetitive, time-consuming marking tasks. Ultimately, this project may aid in the development of a sustainable marking approach within the short-answer context to help address the important issue of timely student feedback.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:24:16Z
format Conference Paper
id curtin-20.500.11937-18100
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:24:16Z
publishDate 2010
publisher University of Technology Sydney
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-181002018-12-14T00:50:12Z Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments Yorke, Jon Gibson, William Wilkinson, Heath N/A Student dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of feedback received on their performance is a recurrent feature of student surveys (Scott, 2005; Williams & Kane, 2008). The study described here sets out to address this issue in a sustainable way, working within the context of the shortanswer assessment format. The primary aims of this study were to reduce the time needed to mark work and to improve the quality of feedback received by students, without recourse to the kind of automated approaches that lack the personal dimension of assessor judgment. To achieve this, a prototype marking software was developed during 2009, and a preliminary trial was conducted in 2010 with 25 students responding to a quiz comprising 25 questions. Online marking using this tool was completed in a third of the time taken to mark the work conventionally some 10 weeks previously. Further investigation revealed additional (and in some cases serendipitous) advantages relating to moderation and administrative efficiency, suggesting that rapid feedback can be provided without overloading academic staff with repetitive, time-consuming marking tasks. Ultimately, this project may aid in the development of a sustainable marking approach within the short-answer context to help address the important issue of timely student feedback. 2010 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18100 http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/atnassessment/authors-and-presentation.html University of Technology Sydney restricted
spellingShingle Yorke, Jon
Gibson, William
Wilkinson, Heath
Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title_full Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title_fullStr Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title_full_unstemmed Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title_short Towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
title_sort towards sustainable marking practices and improved quality of feedback in short-answer assessments
url http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/atnassessment/authors-and-presentation.html
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18100