Andrea Wilczynski, Senior Lecturer
School of Modern Languages
Humanities and Social Sciences
What did you do?
I provided individual audio feedback to students following the submission of written work.
Who is involved?
Andrea Wilczynski and Stage 2 students studying German.
How do you do it?
When marking students’ written work I recorded individual feedback in German for each student. I try to keep the feedback spontaneous and record it as I look through their work again after marking it. I imagine that the student is sitting next to me and that I am explaining their feedback to them. The length of feedback is quite variable but I try not to exceed 5 minutes. Once I have finished the recordings I email the feedback individually to the students so that they can listen to it at a time that suits them.
Why do you do it?
I heard about audio feedback at a conference and loved the idea so I thought I would put it into practice. It allows me to give in depth individual feedback and students really engage with this. I address them directly by name in each recording and they value the time and effort that has gone into providing the feedback. There is also an added benefit to the student as the feedback is in German. Sometimes colleagues ask about the time commitment but I don’t think it takes longer than providing good quality written feedback.
Does it work?
Results from module evaluations are excellent and students often refer to the audio feedback they receive. Even though they don’t get this type of feedback for every piece of work it is certainly something that they remember and that feels very personal to them. I won a TEA award in the category Feedback which was partly based on my use of audio-feedback. Knowing how beneficial the students find this has certainly encouraged me to continue to develop audio feedback further.
In addition colleagues from across the sector have expressed an interest and I have recently delivered a keynote speech at Leeds University at an assessment and feedback event where I also mentioned the success of audio feedback. It would be interesting to investigate further how students respond to this type of feedback and whether an improvement can be noted as a result. This is something I may review in the future.
Contact Details
Andrea Wilczynski, Senior Lecturer