1

The potential of Information School to use new features of

Blackboard and Turnitin to support Audio Feedback

A study submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Your Degree Title

at

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

by

Anisha Asokan

130139470

September 2014

2

ABSTARCT

Background:

Many Universities have started utilising more technology based learning

tools. One of the learning tools which is widely being used by

Universities around UK, is Audio Feedback tool. This makes their

students to improve their learning skills and very flexible for lecturers

who uses it. However, there is a mixed opinion of this feedback method

among both lecturers and students, so a study has been conducted to

analyse their perception about current feedback and audio feedback

method.

Aim:

The aim of this research is to make use of new features in Blackboard

and Turnitin to support audio feedback. This research aims to analyse

about the current feedback practices of the lecturers and experience of

the students.

Methodology:

This research has been carried out using mixed method approach. Both

qualitative and quantitative are being used. Qualitative method is applied

to lecturers and semi- structured interview is being conducted.

Quantitative method applies to students of The University of Sheffield,

by taking part in the online survey.

3

Result:

Based on the findings and discussions, results have been shown. The

overall satisfaction rate of the student on the current feedback is not high

as expected. The lecturers must be explored by using new tools such as

audio feedback to provide feedback to the students. Because, students

prefer audio feedback as such. The University must train lecturers to

utilise it completely to enhance students’ learning skills.

4

ACKNOWLEGMENT

My deepest thanks to Mr. Peter Holdridge, for his useful

supervision. During the research, he has given a lot of guidance

and informative support and helped me in understanding the

subject completely.

I would like to thank all the respondents and participants who

helped me in completing the online survey and interview.

Without their participation, I could not have completed my

dissertation.

Lastly, I would like to thank my parents for their love and

support.

5

Pages

6

7

Pages

8

“I believe that concentrating on giving students detailed and

development, formative feedback is the single most useful things we

can do for our students”

-Brown, 2007

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION

Over the many years the technology enhanced learning (TEL) strategies

that have been motivating the ways of teaching and learning within

Higher Education (Conole, 2007; Oliver, 2007). Nowadays, Internet

access makes work done quick and there are lots of education related

technologies worldwide. The Higher Education has developed many

teaching and learning formats such as, summarising teaching sessions;

recording lectures and audio feedback to benefit students’ learning. As

technology plays vital role in all fields, why not in developing in learning

process. There are lot of educational tools which is not been utilised

completely and moreover, lot of people are unaware of such existence.

One of those unaware existence is a audio feedback tool. As feedback is

the most needed support for a student to learn and develop his/ her

skills, many Universities have facing issues in providing a formative

feedback.

9

Feedback and assessment is one of the main components of students’

learning. Every year, the number of International students are being

increasing, so in order to make them completely satisfied, by providing

a proper; accurate feedback makes students improve their learning

skills. As not all are from English speaking country, every student must

be provided with a face –to –face meeting at their first piece of work.

Thus, this will let them know about the criteria of marking and the

current performance level of each student.

Feedback is the most important tool for students’ learning. Whoever

the students are, wherever they come from or whatever they learn

does not matter. Also, regardless, what form of feedback does the

instructors provide on students’ work could be either written or online

format. The quality of feedback and the comments they provide must

be accurate enough and reliable, so that studnets will be able to

understand the lecturers comments (Chang, 2011).

Dissatisfaction among students about the quality of the feedback they

receive is noted by The Higher Education Academy Generic Center and

National student Survey in 2014. The overall satisfaction percentage of

2013 and 2014 is 72 which includes all the universities in the UK (Times

10

of Higher Education). There were a lot of questions being asked in the

survey, but the least rated is the assessment and feedback.

In order to know about the satisfaction rate of the feedback of the

University of Sheffield, this research is conducted. This research not

only discusses about the satisfaction rate, but also the current feedback

practices and experiences of both lecturers and students and bringing

the ideology of audio feedback into existence.

There are many new features in the Blackborad supported by MUSE of

The University of Sheffield, but few features still remain unused such as

audio feedback. So this research will carry out the benefits for

Information School for providing audio feedback for students.

According to (Gibbs, 2004, Simpson, 2004), the feedback must not only

identify mistakes and misunderstanding, but also it must indicate the

supporting improvements, future developments and also by providing

with timely feedback students could improve in their future assessment

where this is the most significant part of their learning.

Audio feedback is also known as positive feedback. It is used by a digital

voice recorder to record spoken feedback. It is then saved as an audio

11

file, then sending the file to the corresponding student by attaching the

audio file via email. It is considered to be more time-efficient. The

equipment needed for this system is just the mp3 recorder and

headset. It is a straight forward process. It provides constructive

suggestions for students’ improvement. Most of the students would

prefer to listen audio rather than reading the whole piece of written

comments.

Many other feedback format being used currently, but students feel

that it does not aid them while preparing for the future assessment. By

comparing the existing feedback system like written feedback,

Grademark feedback with audio feedback, there are quite a lot of

advantages such as, it will be more personal to the students; they may

find it easier to understand; more likely to listen to the whole piece

rather than reading the selected highlighted text; there would not be

any problem with the legibility.

12

CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW

The main aim of this research is to investigate about the current

feedback practices and the satisfaction rate of the students on

assessment feedback. The technology can make assessments and

feedback more agile and efficient to promote high quality learning (JISC

Report). There are lots of opportunities for self- evaluation, self-

regulation for the learners to assess their own work and creates a

criteria against them. There is a substantial value for various

multimedia technologies which can make the feedback more rich, good

quality, more personal.

The technology could offer the benefits such as, coherent and reliable

feedback; immediate feedback (timely); online peer and self-

assessment. Nicol (2010) argues, any assessment must be designed in

an effective manner since it’s a long term process of learning and one

should be able to gain confidence and self- judgements about their own

work.

The main aim of this research is to help students to improve in their

assessment by the feedback provided by the lecturers. There are many

other tools helps in providing feedback on Blackboard such as; Voice

Board, GradeMark (by using QuickMark option), Audio Feedback etc..,

By using audio feedback can engross students and enhance the

13

teaching presentation. Voice Board, Voice Presentation and Voice Email

could be used to produce audio feedback.

Audio feedback makes students feel optimistic, because it’s more

comprehensive and personal, greater clarity and it is vital for

anticipated results. Students can also review the feedback by replying

back to the faculty. Rotherham (2009) suggested that Audio feedback

may be time consuming for the faculty who uses for the first time, but

by the practice they will be able to finish their marking so quick when

compared to other mmarking methods. But once they are familiar with,

it would save time. Also Rotherham (2008) indicated that audio

feedback are more liable to include examples to elucidate points made

and recommendation of improvements can also be made.

Furthermore, (Merry 2008; Orsmond 2008) noted that audio feedback

can be reused for related assignments in the future, this makes

students improve in the upcoming assignments by analysing the

mistakes they have done in the previous assignment.

The issues for academic staffs thinking about using audio feedback

should be considered, and the Institution must give proper training to

acquire the usage of audio feedback. The common issue among staffs is

the lack of confidence and understanding of the technology where

these issues can be easily erounce with practice. Initially, the students

14

might feel alienated when a new method of recording is introduced.

But with practice, perseverance and exposure, they would become

much more comfortable with the equipment. It has an advantage of

rectifying any mistake that has been committed in a span of a few

minutes. (Ekinsmyth, 2009) indicates the staff perspective that

changing from the current method of feedback to a new method they

face problem of time period to learn the new skill and hence they

unwillingly accept the significance of the feedback process. This can be

overcome with proper training by the study organisers to aid the staff

working with the audio feedback with ease and also by providing

training on re-recording to rectify the mistakes they make.

Furthermore, there are a lot of drawbacks of using current feedback

such as written feedback, GradeMark feedback provide very straight-

forward feedback and also highlights more on the weaknesses.

Researchers found that very few students take up advice seriously

given by the tutors in the written feedback and rectify their errors.

Unlike other types of feedback, written feedback can take a substantial

amount of time to produce. Written feedback cannot be prepared right

away as feedback is a very vital thing for every student, they cannot

wait for a long time. (Dowden, 2011; Pittaway, 2011; Yost, 2011;

McCarthy, 2011) indicated that the students had emotionally

responded to the written feedback saying that the written feedback

15

contains more of the negative comments given by the tutor and

therefore it is less effective.

Another criticism of the current feedback is that providing GradeMark

feedback students feel that it looks like a ready-made feedback, where

a default marking terms being saved and academic staffs can easily

drag and paste onto the submission. This makes students read only the

highlighted points rather than reading it completely and hence

improvements in the upcoming assessment is low.

By comparing the current feedback with audio feedback, there are

many advantages of using audio feedback. Many researchers like

(Roberts, 2008; Rotherham, 2008) are much more enthusiastic about

the students’ perspective, students indicated that comparing to written

feedback, audio feedback was more clear and also by providing audio

feedback they say that the lecturer had genuinely considered their

work. According to (Ribchester, 2008; France, 2008; Wakefield, 2008)

the positive response should not only point at tone of voice, quality,

but also highlighting the important parts of the feedback where

students will be able to concentrate more on it. However, in my view,

this method should be taken into consideration for the students

betterment of the future assignments because expressing feedback by

speech is a better medium than written in words. Another advantage

16

is that, the students can access the feedback within or away from the

university (Hill, 2008) and (Merry, Orsmond 2008) indicated that audio

feedback can used while travelling as well. Also (Merry, Orsmond,

2007) noted that audio commentary will be more understandable to

this generation of students because of the mobile technology, they can

access information through sound by multimedia technology.

Advancement in the technology provides all possible ways to the tutors

to record and send the spoken feedback to students via email as audio

files. Furthermore, the recognition has become high for the portable

audio players and multimedia also opens all new possibilities for

students to interact with such feedback.

National Student Survey (2009) indicated that the assessment feedback

is not upto mark of student satisfaction. Weaver (2006) suggested that

students prefer the feedback for improving their learning in the future,

but they feel it's not effective as it could be. (Glover, 2006; Brown,

2006) also argues that the feedback lacks the future linkage or

assessment task. So to overcome these issues, it's important to explore

an alternative approach such as audio feedback which may increase the

impact on student studying. (Pryor, 2008; Crossouard, 2008) argues

that the role of feedback not only cogitate matter of learning, but also

let think about critical consideration of learning. (Gibbs and Simpson,

2004; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) stated that feedback should be

17

effective which means it must be detailed, understandable and

students use it to self-assess their learning.

National Student Survey 2009 also discussed about the drawbacks of

using written feedback, they are lack of depth, simply stating the

problem, over emphasing on area of weakness and inability to prioritize

(BBC, 2007, UNISTATS, 2009).

Students' perspective about audio feedback are, audio feedback is

easier to understand because it clearly indicates the error and ways to

improve in the future assessments. It is more depth than any other

feedback such as GradeMark feedback, written feedback. Also, it is

richer feedback when compared to others. The academic staff

perspective about using audio feedback is, they are able to give

feedback in more depth and higher quality work and its more flexible,

also saves time by giving in an audio format.

Furthermore, Some researchers claim that, providing feedback to

students is very time consuming and despite the time taken, many

students may not read or uses it for their future assessment (Higgins et

al, 2002).

18

Sadler (1989) argues that, students must learn the following from the

given feedback “a) to have a concept of the reference level they are

aiming for, b) an ability to compare their current standard of work with

that reference level and c) to be able to engage in appropriate behavior

that enables closure of the gap between the reference level and their

current level”. According to Kirshner et al, 1991, found that the

amount of time tutors spends on written feedback is less when

compared to the amount of time they spend on audio feedback. Sipple

(2007) noted that the audio comments made for problematic papers

made students feel more confident in their writing because they had

provided more genuine and praises.

To use audio feedback there are many practical issues to overcome, but

it could replace to other feedback method which is beneficial to both

students and academic staffs.

Merry and Orsmond (2008), improved student learning and also

explains staffs about the value of audio feedback for the students to

improve their assessment standard. Students listened to the audio

feedback more than once and while listening, they can also view their

work. Gibbs and Simpson (2004), suggests that, the students must

receive an effective feedback, which needs to be detailed, clear and

19

should be understood and used by them to self- evaluate their learning.

There are many learning styles which are preferred by students such as,

verbal,aural, written etc.. Advancement in the technology has made a

platform for the tutors to send feedback through the audio file and

multimedia program such as plethora has all possible ways for students

to interact with such feedback. Lunt and Curran (2009) discusses that

students are more likely to listen to an audio file, even for 10 times

when compared to written feedback. Hefce (2011) says that students

are less satisfied with the feedback given. Priority of audio feedback is

becoming higher, as it highly engaging for students (Ice et al, 2007).

Why do not many tutors use audio feedback? Though the audio file

preparation time is quick, the handwritten feedback takes more time,

the ratio is (1:6 ie audio feedback: written feedback in minutes) (lunt &

curran, 2009). Dissatisfaction has been wisely a major issue with

feedback. Both lecturers and students must know what to be expected

in terms of feedback.

Turnitin GradeMark (turnitin.com): it is the online marking system

which is supported by VLE’s such as Blackboard and Moodle.

GradeMark is one of the vital players in the online marking field. And

very recently it has been upgraded to the audio recording for staffs to

provide feedback to students. The cost is very huge that every

institution is investing to use this system. They pay around tens of

20

thousands of pounds every year as license fees. There are also many

alternative tools to provide audio feedback such as SoundCloud

(soundcloud.com) or DropBox (dropbox.com). These tools are available

at zero or low cost. Both the methods have advantages and

disadvantages. Rotherham (2009), research notified that audio

feedback is becoming more popular with the students and also usage of

the audio can be provided at least potential time for staffs. Many

researchers say if students receive their mark before they receive

feedback, if they are satisfied with the mark, they won’t be looking at

the feedback. The GradeMark has certain disadvantages over

SoundCloud and DropBox. Firstly the cost; the feedback can be

delivered as the tutor wishes, whereas GradeMark is a default set of

comments. National Student Survey (NSS) claimed that students are not

satisfied with the feedback they receive as discussed above. On the

other hand, many students do not collect their feedback (Jollands et al,

2009), if they collect it, fail to read it completely (Buswell & Mathews

2004). There are numerous number of questions arise regarding audio

feedback. Firstly, by considering the staff time, it is not clear enough

whether to use audio feedback. Some studies have proven that,

providing audio feedback decreases the staffs’ time when compared to

written feedback (Lunt & Curran, 2010), whereas others feel the

opposite (McFarlane & Wakeman 2011, Rodway Dyar et al, 2011).

21

Some studies noted that audio feedback had proven positive effect of

students learning (Merry and Orsmond, 2008). Orsmond and Merry

(2011) reported that, no lectures provide suggestions for the future

assignment. Merry and Orsmond (2005) indicated that many students

preferred verbal feedback from tutor as it can be questioned and

discussed. France and Wheeler (2007) and Merry and Orsmond (2007,

2008) noted that audio feedback can be more personalised,the voice

tone which provides a clear comments and students may hear the

whole part of the feedback. Thus, this would make students read the

feedback completely.

National Student Survey 2014, have a released a new result. This year

students satisfaction rate remains the same as previous year (2013).

Students rated 72% overall for the assessment and feedback they

receive. Moreover, other questions that have been asked was rated

higher. Questions such as teaching process; academic support;

organisation and management; learning resources; personal

development were rated higher by the students of all Universities

around the UK. The reasons of rating assessment and feedback low for

two consecutive years proved that students are not satisfied with the

feedback they receive. The examination management of each

University must solve this issue by brining an alternative method to

22

provide feedback. The table of the survey is mentioned in the Appendix

section.

Furthermore, National Union of Students (NUS) conducted a research

on feedback and assessment. The NUS recommended some strategies

for lecturers and students. The first strategy is, the assessment and

feedback should be provided throughout the year and formative

feedback must be provided before the assessment deadline. This can

be applied to Undergraduates and Postgraduates taught students. The

next strategy is, students must have a face –to –face feedback at least

for the first assessment. This makes students know about their

performance level indepth and tutor will be guiding them according.

Thus, this will enable students to achieve the goal in the future

assessment. The strategy is feedback should be provided on time.

Finally, an induction program must be conducted in order to know

about the assessment and feedback method, and making students to

understand the criteria of marking of the concerned University.

23

CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY

The methodology is used to collect data to complete a research. There

are many techniques and methods to collect useful data. This research

is carried out using both qualitative and quantitative approach called a

mixed method. Qualitative method means collecting data by

conducting a semi- structured interviews and qualitative method mean

collecting data by online questionnaires.

3.1 Mixed Method:

Mixed method is defined as the research which adopts more than one

type of research method is called mixed method (Bryman 2001: 20). To

utilise this method effectively, one must understand both qualitative

and quantitative approaches (Creswell , J. (2012). Once the method is

confirmed, the data collection strategy and type of design will be

identified. This provides a better understanding of the research. King et

al (1994) claims that both qualitative and quantitative methods has

fused logic and share the same rules. Although they are combined, it

does not mean to use it every time (Sale et al, 2002).

24

Furthermore, by combining qualitative and quantitative methods in one

particular study, it is highly practical and accepted. But on the other

hand, one must analyse and evaluate about mixed method before

carrying out for the research. Jick (1979) mentions that, quantitative

results in enriching to get the qualitative data.

The Acquaring of mixed approach in this research is because, there are

two end-users of audio feedback. Data are collected from both

lecturers and students of The University of Sheffield. Qualitative

method is applied to lecturers by conducting a semi- structured

interview. Quantitative method applies to students by sending an

online questionnaire via University mail.

3.2 Quantitative Method:

Quantitative methodology encompasses collecting numerical data that

is drawn for statistical analysis. Social survey is used in collecting data

through online (Bryman, 1988). Questions can be represented either by

open- ended or close- ended and both at times. The open- ended

question are left with black space, so that respondents can type their

own opinion. Closed- ended questions are given with options, the

respondents must choose whichever one is appropriate (Sofaer, 1999).

The questionnaire can be created at low or free of cost and very

25

effective method to collect data from a large pool of people who can

still remain anonymous

One of the main advantages is that, the data can be collected in a very

short period from a large number of people and thus a large amount of

data could be derived (Ackroyd. S, 1981).

3.3 The Questionnaire Design:

This research consists of total 16 questions in the questionnaire. These

questions are of type closed- ended. In the first section the general

information such as, age; gender; degree level has been collected. In

the second section, the experience of current feedback method related

information is collected. And the last section consists of question on

audio feedback. None of the questions are open- ended, only multi-

choice questions have been created by providing options such as Yes or

No and choices of answer.

The questionnaire is sent to the whole Univerisity, which covered all

the departments. It was created using Google Docs and sent via

University mail.

26

3.4 Limitation with questionnaire:

The questionnaire sometimes fails to offer a chance to receive high

quality data. Therefore a prior testing must be done. According to

Bryman (2004), any form questions should be rectified before

distributing it online, failing to do such testing, will result in invalid and

unreliable data. The researcher must inform in prior about the research

and should ask the participants to answer honestly even it is a negative

answer. But whatever the answers might the students will still remain

anonymous.

3.5 Questionnaire Ethics:

This research has been approved by Information School Research

Ethics. Information concent sheet is attached to the online survey.

Participants enrolled are not asked to give any personal (general)

information, as they are anonymous. Participants can be withdrawn

from survey anytime.

27

3.6 Qualitative Method:

Many researchers has recognised that, qualitative research tries to

bring a vast potential for collecting data (Black, 1994). Qualitative

method is a type of educational research which completely

concentrates on the participants view; general data; maximum data are

collected by words (in detail) from the participants.

Qualitative method also analyses the words and conducts to find a

common theme. It is conducted among a small group of participants. It

has no hard rules, because the data collected can be either included or

removed by the researcher (Greenhaigh. T, 1997).

This research needs to obtain a deeper understanding about the

current experience of students about their assessment feedback and

thus qualitative method is used. Qualitative method is used to gather

information that one cannot do with quantitative method and also

analyses the human behavior change. Such complex behavior is not

recognised by qualitative method. Therefore, it is both inductive and

interactive.

In qualitative research, the most commonly used method is interview. It

allows people to speak in their own voice. The interview retains quality;

28

investigation of information and also, only specified persons are been

interviewed (Morgan, 1988).

This research is carried out by conducting semi- structured interview.

Semi- structured interview is a non- standardised and very often used

in qualitative research. The research must have key themes, the issues

to be covered and questions can be amended according to the situation

of the interview.

3.7 Interview Design:

The interviewee are the lecturers of Information School. For this

research three of them were selected . There were 6 questions in total

and the duration of the interview 15-20 minutes. The questions might

be included or deleted during the interview because it depends on the

way of participant answering the questions. The interview participants

are anonymous.

3.8 Interview Ethics:

An email was sent to the interviewee to confirm whether they are

willing to participate or not. Once they confirm, the interviewee will be

asked to have a clear idea of the topic. There were totally seven

questions, but during the time of interview, few questions will be

added or deleted according to the situation of the interview.

29

3.9 Conclusion:

Thus, mixed method was used to collect data. Online questionnaire

which was distributed to the entire University of Sheffield, helped in

receiving a large number of responses and semi- structured interview,

which was conducted at the Information School, helped in gaining lots

of information about this research. These data will be used in analysing

and discussing in the following chapter.

CHAPTER 4- FINDING

This chapter represents the research finding of data from the online

survey and semi- structured interview. The data that has been collected

from lecturers and students will explore the current feedback practices

and experiences and the attitudes towards audio feedback of both

lecturers and students. Data from both questionnaire and interview will

be discussed to make the analysis clear.

4.1 Questionnaire results:

The finding is represented in the form of graphs and tables with a short

explanation about each and every finding will be discussed.

30

4.2 Sampling:

The questionnaire has been sent to The University of Sheffield via

announce mail from 1st to 8th of August 2014. The number of valid

responses was approximately 100. The following section describes the

details of the finding in depth.

4.3 Findings Description:

The online survey is conducted only for students. The students’

perception on the feedback and their idea and usage rate of the audio

feedback will be discussed.

Gender Number of Responses

Male 44

Female 55

Prefer not to disclose 1

Total number of

responses

100

Table 4.1 Number of Responses according to Gender

Table 4.1 shows the number of responses according to the gender. The

total number of males is 44 and female count is 55 and one of them did

31

not prefer to close. However, this is a required question to be

answered.

AGE

Figure 4.2

Figure 4.2 shows the respondents’ age. There are 64 students between

the age of 18-25; 28 students in between the age of 26-35; 5 of them

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

18- 25 26- 35 36- 45 46- 60

32

are between 36-45 and 3 of them are between 46-60. Thus, in total

100 respondents have declared their ages in the questionnaire.

EDUACATIONAL LEVEL

Figure 4.3

0 20 40 60 80

Undergraduates

Postgraduate- Taught

Postgraduate- Research

PhD

Other

Educational level

33

Figure 4.3 shows the different educational level respondents. There are

18 Undergraduate (UG) students; 67 students were Postgraduate-

Taught(PGT) have been the maximum number of respondents; 8 of

them were Postgraduate- Research (PGR); 6 of them were PhD students

and 1 students from other educational level.

Questionnaire on Current Feedback Experience:

This section tries to find out about the current feedback experience of

students of different departments. The following are the data collected

from the finding.

34

Rate the accuracy of the feedback

Figure 4.4

Figure 4.5 tries to find out the accuracy of the feedback received by the

students. All the degree level has rated the accuracy, 10% of the

student respondents say that the accuracy is less than 50%. The

maximum number (61%) of student respondents says the accuracy is

between 50- 70% and the rest 29% respondents rated the accuracy as

more than 75%. Students who rated the accuracy as less than 50%,

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Less than 50%

50-70%

More than 75%

35

might have received a poor feedback which would not had consistent

comments or inaccurate.

Do you get your feedback regularly?

Figure 4.5

In order to know about the regularity of the feedback, 65% of the

students opted “Yes”, which means that they receive their feedback on

time. Remaining 35% of the students opted “No”, which means they

have not received their feedback on time. The ratio of this finding is 1:2

(ie) for every two students, one of them have received their feedback

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

36

late. Therefore the management has to solve this issue by providing

timely feedback to all the students with any delay. As there are large

number of students submit their assignment altogether, the lecturers

does not find enough time to prepare as they were given very limited

time and even if they finish marking on time, the management makes

some delay in forwarding the feedback to the students.

Do you read your feedback completely?

Figure 4.6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

37

This question tests the whether students read the feedback completely

or not. 80% of the students say that they read the feedback completely,

on the other hand 20% of them says ‘No’. The students who opted

“No”, must be taken into account, the reasons for not reading the

feedback completely. The reasons will be discussed in the next chapter.

What percentage of the feedback do you read?

Figure 4.7

This question tries to find out the percentage of the feedback read by

the students. 5% of the students reads less than 25%, 16% of the

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Less than 25%

Less than 50%

Less than 75%

100%

38

students read 50%, again 16% of the students read more than 75%, and

the rest 63% of the students read it completely ie 100%.

The feedback helps to improve future assessment?

Figure 4.8

In order to know about the improvement of the students in the future

assessment, this question investigates the percentage of the students.

28% of the students strongly agree that the feedback they receive from

the lecturers helps them to improve their future assessment. 43% of

the students agrees, 27% of the students feels neutral about the

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Never

39

improvement and 2% of the students says that the feedback never

helps in improving the assessment.

Which of the forms of feedback have you received?

Figure 4.9

This question analyses the type of feedback students receive. 55% of

the students have chosen written comments, 27% of them chose

GradeMark, 13% of them chose comments through email and 5% of

them chose other form of feedback. There are different forms of

feedback method exists in the turnitin, but very few methods are only

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Written Comments

GradeMark

Comments through mail

Other

40

used. Not all departments use the same feedback methods, it differns

from each other. Many students did not know about GradeMark, this

shows they receive their feedback in an informal manner.

Does the current feedback method give you a personalised touch?

Figure 4.10

This question tries to analyse whether the feedback received by

students gets them personalised touch. 63% of the students say that

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

41

the feedback gives them personalised touch, whereas 37% of the

students says “No”.

Does the feedback contain more negative comments than positive

ones?

Figure 4.11

In order to analyse the feedback method in depth, this question tries to

find out the measure of negative comments versus positive comments.

9% of the students strongly agree, 19% of the students agree, 62% of

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Never

42

the students feel neutral and remaining 10% of the students completely

disagree. During the interview, this finding results have shocked one of

the lecturers. Because each students must be given importance and the

number of students who opted “strongly agree and agree” must be

considered and certain steps has to be taken to solve this issue.

Are you satisfied with the current feedback methods?

Figure 4.12

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

43

This question analyses the satisfaction rate of the current feedback

methods. 56% of the students are satisfied with the current feedback

method, whereas 44% of the students are not satisfied. This is one of

the questions being asked in National Student Survey, United Kingdom.

The overall satisfaction rate of assessment and feedback was 72 for the

two consecutive years (2013, 2014).

Have you ever got assessment feedback via audio file?

Figure 4.13

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

44

This question measures the number of students who had experienced

audio feedback. 11% of the students have experienced audio feedback,

whereas remaining 89% of the students have not experienced. Only

some departments have tried using it. Since, it is one of the features in

Turnitin, why have not all the departments utilise it? The analysis will

be discussed in the next chapter.

Would you prefer audio feedback?

Figure 4.14

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Responses Percentage

No

Yes

45

This is the major question of this research. Since Turnitin supports

audio feedback method, not all departments in the university use it. So

here is the responses of the students. 55% of the students prefer audio

feedback and 45% of the students wouldn’t prefer audio feedback. The

students who have opted “No”, must not be aware of the audio

feedback. Because only 11% of the students in the University have

received the feedback in an audio file.

Do you prefer feedback in your native language?

Figure 4.15

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Never

46

In order to know more about International students’ preferences, this

question has been asked. 26% of the students strongly agree, 12% of

the students agree, 37% of the students selected neutral and 25% of

the students does not prefer their feedback in native language. Many

students’ native language is not English, so to make them understand

about feedback completely, there are lots of software which converts

English to any preferred language. It has being widely used for many

purposes. The number of responses who opted “never” might be purely

English speaking students or their comfortable rate may be higher in

understanding.

Interview:

4.4 Interview Sampling:

The interview was conducted in the Information School, three of them

were selected and an email had been sent to them for confirmation.

Once they confirmed, the research objectives were discussed. Each

participant spent 15-20 minutes of their time to answer my questions.

There were totally 7 questions, but during the time of the interview

some questions may be added or removed according to the situation.

47

4.5 Findings:

Question 1:

Experience of using the Current feedback methods such as, GradeMark

and written comments.

The participants who were interviewed have at least 10-15 of

experience in providing feedback. Each participate had their own

experiences, which were not too similar among them.

Respondent A shared his experience:

“It has been rated very highly by Undergraduate students in the

National Student Survey and indeed every year Information School has

been rated high and some departments as well”.

National Students Survey rated overall of 72%, and only this component

is being rated low.

Respondent B shared his experience:

“ Students get two parts of feedback, the first part would be textual

statement and the next part is the marking grade. It contains a series of

very standard statements and it is basically a pre- coded responses.

48

How I use it, read the essay and make some scribble comments and look

write up those textual comments and looking at the grade and mark

whichever grade is appropriate”.

Based on the respondent B, it is clear that, he uses GradeMark method

to mark the assignment.

Respondent C shared his experience:

“ I have not used GradeMark as such at all. I wanted to experience. I use

turnitin to provide feedback. Trademark has lots of tools, such as adding

a textual comment or dragging appropriate comments from the set of

standard comments. It also says that the trademark would be time

consuming, but in the students’ perception, it might help them see their

mark and comment in single sheet”.

Respondent C was totally in contrast of A and B. As Information School

lecturers uses grademark method for assessment, he said, he never

used because it is does not provide consistent comment according to

him. He concluded by suggesting, it would be better if some

amendments are made in the criteria sheet.

49

Question 2:

Do the current feedback methods help students to improve their future

assessment?

This is one of the important questions that have been asked to both

students and lecturers. As three respondents uses three different

marking method, the experiences were totally different from each

other.

Respondent A discussed:

“ On the National Students Survey, it has been rated 72%, which

students are not satisfied with the feedback method and we lecturers

give only formative feedback. We focus only on the strengths and

weakness rather than providing comments for the improvement. Some

modules share a series of components, they have the potential of one

assessment informing the next assessment and being a formative

learning process. Ad some module assessment is at the end of the

module and thus the impact of feedback is less. This must be changed

as soon as possible”.

Based on respondent A opinion, not all modules share the same

method of assessment. Some module may have an essay writing, some

may have a group work and some module would share both group

50

work and individual one. This leads the marker to discuss very little

advice on the work students have perceived.

Respondent B was totally in contrast of respondent A:

“ I hope it is, because by giving two forms of feedback it would help

them to improve. For instance, if a student had scored 45% and he looks

for the comments to rectify his mistake and do well the next time. Thus,

my feedback helps students to improve their future work”.

Respondent C emphasized:

“ I think when people doing marking they should see it is formative even

it is in the module. And also we are in a position to think how can we

help students to improve. In some ways I don’t think we do our job as

best we could do. I always think someone could do the marking better

with the appropriate comments”.

Based on respondent C opinion, it is clear that, the marking sheet must

be changed completely or at least little amendments could take place.

51

Question 3:

Is current feedback method time consuming?

Respondent A:

“It depends on what method is being followed. If it is a written

feedback, “Yes” I find it extremely time consuming and other lecturers

feel the same”.

Respondent B:

“Any form of feedback, if it is used properly, it is time consuming. Thus,

clear and fair feedback would be provided”.

Respondent C:

“ If it is a big class and if I have to mark 40 essays with the word count

of 3000, it could very complicated by writing and sometimes not written

very well and finally marking the 40th essay…., it’s a vast network but

people perceived it to be. Of course it is very important to do well, but I

think it is repetition as well. People try to do varience such as group

work, presentation, structured assignment, etc,.. so each one is

different. Thus, marking is time consuming”.

Based on the answers, each one of them uses different feedback

method. Respondent A uses written feedback; respondent B uses

52

grademark and respondent C uses a mixed method (both grademark

and written comments). Thus, all the current feedback methods are

time consuming.

Question 4:

Do students go through the whole feedback?

Respondent A:

“I suspect, they just look at the grade, if they are not happy with the

grade, they might go through the feedback. If they are happy with the

grade, they might just scan it or ignores it”.

Respondent B:

“I have no clue whether they read or not”

Question 5:

Why have not Information school use audio feedback?

Respondent A:

“I think for me personally, if you want to give a feedback, it must be

accurate and fair, I don’t think you can do it via sound track. The only

53

way to work is by writing it first and then making an audio file. This

might be accurate”.

Respondent B:

“I wouldn’t use it because, when I look into written feedback and think

very carefully what exactly do I want to say. But if it’s an audio, you can

actually talk to the students directly and discuss about the

performance”. I prefer face -to -face feedback than written feedback,

because I spent a lot of time thinking how to write it so that students

does not misunderstands the comments”.

Respondent C:

“I suspect they would think it will be time consuming, but I heard other

department lecturers saying it is not time consuming when compared to

other methods. I would really like o know about the mechanism of audio

feedback”.

At the end of the interview, after knowing about the benefits of audio

feedback over other methods, the participants agreed to use audio

feedback, if there were allowed. One of the participants still refuses to

use.

54

4.6 Conclusion:

Based on the finding, it is clear that both students and lecturers have

positive attitude towards audio feedback. Thus, the University must try

bringing such a method into existence.

CHAPTER 5- DISCUSSION OF FINDING

In this chapter, based on the findings from the previous chapter will be

discussed. Both qualitative and quantitative finding are combined

together to have a better discussion, which means a comparative study

will take place that includes lecturers and students.

The aim of this research is to explore new feature of Blackboard and

Turnitin to support e-assessment such as audio feedback for

Information School. This research is based on providing audio feedback

for e-assessment to students via an audio file. And also issues faced

both by lecturers and students regarding current feedback methods are

discussed. It mainly focuses on analysing the existing system;

comparing audio feedback system with the current feedback system;

and also to propose such feature in Information School. Since it is

already exists in turnitin, why have not the department implemented

55

it? And lastly lecturers and students perception on audio feedback is

discussed.

An online survey has been distributed to the students via University

mail to the university which covered almost all the departments. The

online survey lasted for 10 days online and received approximately 100

responses from students of various departments especially from

Information School. The total number of responses has been deeply

analysed and results that audio feedback is not completely utilised by

the University. As already mentioned above 100 students took part in

the survey and only 11 of them have experienced audio feedback and

the remaining 89 of them have not experienced till date. This is the

highest rate of not using such feature.

Furthermore, a deep investigation has been carried out to benefit both

students and lecturers. So management must support lecturers to use

audio method to benefit students to improve their future assessment

and providing timely feedback with any delay. Management must also

train lecturers to use such new feature. One of the participants who

took part in the interview claimed that “ one of the main problems of

using audio feedback is the lecture who’s assessing the students' work

must be formative, but when he tries through the audio file, it becomes

56

informative in certain places”. According to the online survey, 44%of

the students are not satisfied with the current feedback practices such

as GradeMark; written comments; comments through mail etc,,.

Feedback can either be formal or informal, because the only is to help

students to evaluate their ability to understand (Nicol et al, 2006 ). The

feedback methods that are mentioned in the above section can be

constructed in a formative way, but in the students' perspective, they

feel feedback could also be in an informative way, so that it helps them

to understand the feedback completely and could correct themselves in

the future assessment.

The rating for the accuracy of feedback from students was, 10% of

them rated the feedback as less than 50%, which has to be noted.

Because less than 50% accuracy does not help students to cope up in

the assessment. Feedback is the only tool, where students could

improve and understands their current level of performance. There

were 61% of students rated 50-70% as accuracy. This is comparatively

better than the previous rating. Noting this ‘The Higher Education

Academy Genernic Center’ has carried out a research to increase the

quality of feedback. They also have suggested a few strategies. The first

57

one would be providing a clear definition criteria sheet and focusing on

the performance level of students. The second strategy would be

provided with an example assignment which is attached to the

feedback. Finally feedback should deliver high quality information to

every student which would help in improving their learning skills.

Flanndly (2001) notified that students who are unable to measure their

performance by the feedback given, then they are not likely to focus on

the subject which has to be completely mastered. Hence, feedback

must be accurate enough provided by the lecturers.

In order to know whether students receive their feedback regularly or

not, a question is has been asked related to it. There were 35% of the

students have not received their feedback on time. The same question

was also asked to the interviewee, he answered “ the time given to us is

not sufficient to evaluate more than 100 essay with the word count of

3000 in three weeks. For an accurate and timely feedback, we must be

given fair enough time to evaluate”. One of the researchers discusses

that, formative feedback must be provided on early exams or

assessment, so that it helps students to improve their performance in

the upcoming assessment.

58

One of the important questions asked to both students and lecturers is

“Do students read the feedback completely?”. According to the survey

result, 20% of the students opted “No”. The reason might be, if a

students’ score is good, he/she will not be going through the feedback

completely. If the students fail or just pass in the border, will have a

glance, again not reading the feedback completely. Therefore, whether

they score good or bad, they are not prioritizing the feedback given by

their lecturers. One of the interview participants said “usually students

won’t go through the feedback, they check for the mark which is

mentioned at the top and ignores the comments”. By understanding

the issues of both lecturers and students, ‘The Higher Education

Academy Genernic Center’ have suggested that, only if the students’

response to the comments given by the lecturers will be given the mark

failing which the students will never get to know their marks. Thus, this

would make students to read the feedback completely.

It is important for students to improve themselves in their future

performance level by perceiving a well structured feedback. So in order

to know about it, one of the questions asked to both lecturers and

students was “Does feedback help to improve future assessment?”,

43% of the students agree that, the feedback provided by their lecturer

aids them to understand the mistakes and rectifies it. Whereas on the

other hand 29% of the students have not seen any improvements with

59

the feedback they receive. Lectuerers’ perspective has already been

discussed in the finding section.

National Union of Students suggested a principle, a feedback should be

provided in a timely manner that only helps students in the future

progress (LINK 2). As students prefer their feedback to be personal, one

of the questions in the online survey asked was “Does the current

feedback methods makes students feel personalised?”. Surprisingly

37% of students did not feel personal by the feedback they receive.

Also one of the participants in the interview feels the same. He said “

comment sheet is pre- coded ones, where the lecturers were asked to

select the appropriate comments. Thus, this might not make students

to feel personalised”. Also, he suggested solutions to solve this issue.

1. GradeMark could help to solve this problem by adding written

comments on the marking sheet.

2. If the feedback is provided in audio format, it would be more

personalised for students.

The Higher Education Academy has also suggested that, the lecturers

who is marking an assignment, must write down some ‘action points’

which will be attached to the regular feedback.

60

The comments given by the lecturers matters a lot. Students prefer to

receive more positive comments than negative ones. The errors in the

assignment could be commented in a positive manner. When this

question is being asked in the survey, 28% of them agreed that, the

feedback they receive contains more of negative comments than

positive ones. Lunsford (1997), suggested that students must know how

the reader has experienced their (example –essay), rather than being

judgmental about their work. Certain comments must help students

understand the difference between objective and result. He also

suggests that comments should always overture advice,rather than

finding only the strengths and weakness. Sadler (1983) argues that,

providing feedback by using criteria sheet does not always have a good

impact on students. So lecturers must always think of a tool which

fulfills the students’ need and such tool must deliver feedback with

expected goals and task requirements.

Furthermore, by considering the current feedback methods such as,

written comments, grademark and comments via email have not

satisfied by all the students. The written comment method is being

experienced by 55% of the students and 27% of them experienced

grademark. But as the result, 44% of the students are not satisfied with

the current feedback method. The reasons would be, as already

discussed in the above sections, not receiving timely feedback, does not

61

feel personal and does not help them to improve in the future work

and more negative comments than positive ones. Some lecturers have

also experienced the same as students. Boud (2000) argues, feedback

should not only focus on errors, but also corrective advice must be

provided. This advice should be completely understood by the students

and they must turn it into action.

To overcome all the issues faced by lecturers and students about

assessment feedback, audio feedback would solve these issues. At The

University of Sheffield, some departments have already used this

method. Only 11% of the students have experienced such feedback,

remaining 89% of them would prefer to experience audio feedback. In

the lecturers’ perspective, initially they did not prefer an audio

feedback method as it consumes more time and they think it is a

burden for them as they need to evaluate a lot of students work. After

a deep analysis of students need and satisfaction, they agreed to use, if

they were given a proper training by the management. One of the

participants of the interview said “ there is a wrong perception of audio

feedback. Some lecturer says it is very time consuming, but the staffs

who had already used said that it is not time consuming. And any form

of feedback would be time consuming if they use it properly to provide

a fair feedback”.

62

Based on the finding, 55% of the students prefer audio feedback, which

means they wanted to experience such method. As audio feedback

remains to be an unused tool which is supported Turnitin, the

University could start using it effectively. Since it has numerous

advantages which will be discussed in chapter 5, audio feedback could

be bought into existence. Many students were unaware of such

existence, might include a few lecturers as well. Bob Rotherham, who is

a National Teaching fellow at the Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds,

have conducted a research project “Sounds Good: Quicker, better

assessment using audio feedback”. His research discussed a lot of

benefits that would feed students to improve their future learning from

the feedback they receive. This research has been conducted all

Universities around UK. Both lecturers and students were optimistic

about the audio feedback and pessimistic on current feedback

methods.

National Union of Students has undergone a research on Assessment

and Feedback, which included a chapter called “Students should be

given a choice of formats of feedback”. This particular chapter discusses

about the different format of feedback, such as written, verbal and

electronic. The study results by suggesting the Universities to discuss

63

about the feedback with students and give them a choice, so that

feedback could be provided with their preferences. Thus, this makes

any students to read the feedback completely and also gets

personalised touch.

5.1 Strengths and weakness of the methodology:

Mixed method has been used for collecting data. Qualitative method

was applied to lecturers, conducted a semi- structured interview and

quantitative method was applied to the students by distributing the

online survey. The data collected that has been collected from lecturers

and students was combined to get more reliable and desired objective

result.

Due to the time constraints, not all students took up the online survey,

since it’s been sent to all the department, the responses were less in

number. More number lecturers must be interviewed, but due to less

time, only a few of them were able to participate.

64

CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the conclusion regarding the research objective will be

summerised. And also recommendation for future study and

suggestions will be discussed.

The research objective:

This research is based on the current practices and experience of

feedback for assessment and also the satisfaction rate of students

about feedback is analysed. Issues by providing timely and useful

feedback method is also being discussed. The following are the

objective of this research,

1. To analyse the existing system.

2. To know whether the current feedback methods help students to

improve their future learning process.

3. To compare audio feedback to the existing system

4. To analyse the students’ and lecturers’ perception regarding

audio feedback.

65

The first objective is to analyse the existing feedback systems such as,

grademark and written comments method. These two methods are

widely being used at The University of Sheffield. But not all students

experience the same method. Some student may receive written

comments whereas some students may receive grademark comments.

As details indicated students receive their feedback by either of the

methods. The lecturers also use either of the methods, since there a lot

of other methods in existence, they do not use it.

The main objective of this research is, whether students are able to

improve their future work by the feedback they receive. As the results

showed students did not completely satisfied with the feedback. Some

lecturers also pointed out that, due to the time constraints , the

feedback is provided only at the end of the module except certain

modules.it depends the form of coursework they work. Some module

assessment will have only one component which will held at the end of

the semester, while some module might have more than two

components, here students might receive their feedback before

completing the second components. Therefore, it depends on the type

of assessment they pursue.

Another important objective would be, the issues facing by students

regarding the feedback. Based on the finding,it is clear that students

66

are not satisfied with the feedback they receive, might be due to

reasons such as, inaccuracy; delay in receiving feedback; more negative

comments; not getting personalised touch; very little advice are given

for the improvement.by considering all these issues, management is in

a position to sort out as quick as possible. Because feedback is the only

tool which plays as a backbone of students’ work.

The next main objective of his research is comparing audio feedback

with the existing one. Based on the finding, maximum responses from

survey showed that students preferred audio feedback than the

existing methods. The participants in the interview also agreed to use

audio feedback, after understanding its advantages over other

feedback methods. The advantages includes, providing feedback on

time, since lecturers themselves agreed that any form would be time

consuming, but once given to training with audio feedback, it might

take less time when compared to other feedback. The next advantage

would be, students will not be able to scan the feedback when sent

through an audio file, whereas, they will be able to scan the feedback

given in written format. Thus, this makes students to know about the

feedback completely. Since many students wanted to get a

personalised touch, audio feedback would solve this issue. Many

researchers have also suggested that audio feedback might get

students more personal by their feedback.

67

Another important objective is that, students’ and lecturers’ perception

on audio feedback. Based on the finding, only 11% of the students have

experienced audio feedback in the University, since there are numerous

number of departments and lecturers only these many students

managed to receive their feedback in an audio format. So if all the

departments make use of such tool to provide accurate and reliable

feedback, students learning skill would be improved. Very limited

awareness of audio feedback makes the low rate of usage. Thus, this

research have provided the facts about the current feedback practice of

lecturers and experience of students. Also a new feature of Blackboard

and Turntin which supports audio feedback method is being proposed.

6.1 A quick research on the UK Universities that prefers to use Audio

Feedback: Source – A Word in Your Ear(2009)

Based on the research on feedback, lot of universities around UK, have

already started using audio feedback. Bob Rotheram, National Teaching

fellow at Leeds MetropolitianUniversity have conducted a research

named “Sounds Good: Quicker, better assessment using audio

feedback”. His research was based on highlighting the benefits of audio

feedback and reasons to adopt this method widely in higher education.

68

The following are the universities and the lecturers who have shared

their experience on using audio feedback and students’ positive

reaction towards audio feedback.

1. Birmingham City University, conducted a case study on students,

whether the audio feedback gives them a personalised touch or

not. The students who participated in the study have felt

optimistic on the feedback they received. Thus, this may be

considered one of the samples, that audio feedback would give

personalised touch.

2. University of Chester, conducted a study on podcasting

technology on audio feedback to students. Both tutors and

students felt so conceiving on such feedback method. And tutors

noted that this method would help all he distance learner and the

accessing of audio feedback is very ease to communicate to the

students directly. Thus, accessing becomes easier when compared

to other methods.

3. University of Reading reports a paper that how tutors and

learners react to audio feedback for written work. This report had

proved that audio feedback would be effective; engaging for

69

learners; more friendly and lecturers could deliver feedback on

time. Thus, audio format will be able to provide a richer layer of

feedback that motivates the learners.

4. Sheffield Hallem Univeristy, conducted a small research on audio

feedback enhances students, whether written feedback is

satisfied or not. The satisfaction rate of the students on audio

feedback was high hen compared to written comments. Thus, this

proves that students are not satisfied with the current feedback

methods. The researchers concluded that, a future research might

be carried out to analyse whether, audio feedback could help

students to improve their performance in the future courseworks.

5. University of Leeds, conducted a research whether audio

feedback helps students to improve their future learning. He

evaluated some students’ work and sent via an audio file. The

students (including hearing disability student) who received

feedback, welcomed this method, genuinely and would prefer this

kind of method for all the modules, since it helps them in

rectifying their errors in the future coursework.

70

Thus, some Universities have already implemented audio feedback

method and proved it has an optimistic feedback from both students

and lecturers. There are also some disadvantages, but the advantages

could solve the current issues.

6.2 Suggestions:

Based on the findings and discussions, some suggestions could be given

to the lecturers and all the departments in the University. The finding of

this research results, many of them were unaware of such feedback

tool, which means some awareness should be given to audio feedback

to both lecturers and students. The University must train lecturers to

use such method and should make sure all students receive their

feedback on time.

Furthermore, based on the finding, one of the online questions,

whether students prefer their feedback in their native language. The

responses received were positive and bringing this into action is not

very complicated as there is lots of software to convert English into the

concerned native language of students.

71

6.3 Future Research:

The online questionnaire was sent to the whole University, but only

very few of them managed to complete the survey due to the time

constraints. Thus, for the future research it would go well when the

questionnaire is sent early summer to receive more number of

responses. Also by adding open- ended questions to the survey to know

about the opinion of students on current feedback and audio feedback.

Meanwhile, in the interview, it would be helpful when more number of

lecturers is being interviewed. Because one of the end-users of

feedback are the lecturers and should be very focused. The interview

must invite lecturers who refuse to use audio feedback tool, this makes

them to know about the benefits of the tool.

Word Count: 10,436

72

Reference:

Ackroyd, S. and Hughes, J.A. (1981). Data Collection in Context. pp.141-150.

Retrieved From: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45241107

Black, N. (1994). Why we need qualitative research. Journal of Epidemiology and

Community Health, 48(5), pp.425–426. Retrieved From:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1060002/

Bryman, A. (2003). Quantity and Quality in Social Research. Contemporary social

research series social research today. 18. doi: 0203410025, 9780203410028

Bryman, A. (2004). Social Research Methods 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Buswell, J. and Matthews, N. (2004). Feedback on feedback! Encouraging students

to readfeedback: A University of Gloucestershire case study. Journal of

Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 3 (1). Retrieved From:

http://www.host.ltsn.ac.uk/johlste.

Cann, A. (2014). Engaging Students with Audio Feeddback. Bioscience Education,

22(1), 31-41. Retrieved From:

http://journals.heacademy.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.11120/beej.2014.00027

Chang, N. (2011). Pre-Service teachers’ views: How did e-feedback through

assessment facilitate their learning? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and

Learning, 11(2), 16-33.

73

Creswell , J. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating

quantitative and qualitative research(4thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education.

Davies, S. (2010). Effective Assessment in Digital Age. JISC report. pp1-54. Retrieved From: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/digiassass_eada.pdf Desrochers, C. (2005). Provided timely and frequent feedback on tests, reports,

projects, etc.., to help students improve. IDEA center. Retrieved From:

http://ideaedu.org/sites/default/files/Item17Formatted.pdf

Dowden, T., Pittaway, S., Yost, H. & McCarthy, R. (2011) Students’ perceptions of

written feedback in teacher education: ideally feedback is a continuing two-way

communication that encourages progress, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher

Education, 38(3), 349-362. doi:10.1080/02602938.2011.632676.

Ekinsmyth, C. (2009). Reflections on using digital audio to give assessment

feedback. The higher Education Academy. Planet issue 23, 77-79. Retrieved from

http://www.gees.ac.uk/planet/p23/ekinsmyth.pdf

Flannelly, L. T. (2001). Using feedback to reduce students’ judgment bias on test

questions. Journal of Nursing Education, 40(1), 10-16. Retrieved From:

http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1423&context=tpr

France, D. and Wheeler, A. (2007). Reflections on using podcasting for student

feedback. Planet,18,9–11. Retrieved From:

http://78.158.56.101/archive/gees/planet/p18/df2.pdf

Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports Students’ learning Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1 (1), 3-31.

74

Greenhaigh,T. (1997). How to read a paper: paper that go beyond numbers (qualitative research), Education and Debat.Retrieved From: http://www.ncor.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/How-to-read-a-paper_qualitative_research.pdf Gill Ferrel. (2012). Feedback Landscape: Baseline analysis policy and practices

from the JISC Assessment & Feedback program. JISC Report. Retrieved From:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/supportingyourinstitution/studentjourney/~/media/docum

ents/programmes/elearning/Assessment/JISCAFBaselineReportMay2012.ashx

Glover, C. and Brown, E. (2006). Written Feedback for Students: too much, too detailed or too incomprehensible to be effective? . 7,1-16. Reterived from: http://journals.heacademy.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.3108/beej.2006.07000004 Hefce. (2011). National Student Survey: findings and trends 2006 to 2010.

Retrieved From: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2011/201111/

Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. and Wells, J. (2007). Using asynchronous audio feedback to enhance teaching presence and students’ sense of community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks11 (2), 3–23. Retrieved From: http://bk.psu.edu/clt/BLTsamples/AsynchronousAudioFeedback-Sample.pdf Jick, T.D. (1979). Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in

Action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(4), pp.602–611. doi:

10.2307/2392366

Jollands, M., McCallum, N. and Bondy, J. (2009) If students want feedback why don't they collect their assignments? In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference 2009, University of Adelaide, pp735–740. Retrieved From: http://aaee.com.au/conferences/AAEE2009/PDF/AUTHOR/AE090060.PDF

75

King, G., Keohane, R. O. & Verba, S. (1994). Designing Social Inquiry. Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Reterived from: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5458.html Kirscher, P.A,. Van den Brink, H. & Meester, M. (1991). Audiotape feedback for essays in distance. Innovative Higher EducatioI, 15(2), 185-195. Reterived from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00898030#page-1 Lunt, T. and Curran, J. (2009) Are you listening please? The advantages of

electronic audio feedback compared to written feedback. Assessment and

Evaluation in Higher Education, 35 (7), 759–769.

doi:10.1080/02602930902977772.

McFarlane, K. and Wakeman, C. (2011). Using audio feedback for summative purposes. Innovative Practice in Higher Education,1(1), 1–20. doi: 2044-3315 Merry, S. & Orsmond, P. (2007). The Science Learning and Teaching Conference. Students’ responses to academic feedback provided via mp3 audio files. 18, 100-104. Reterived from: http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/events/sltc07/papers/o18merry.pdf

Merry, S. & Orsmond, P. (2008). Students’ Attitudes to and Usage of Academic Feedback Provided Via Audio Files. Vol 11. 1-7. Reterived from http://journals.heacademy.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.3108/beej.11.3?prevSearch=Students%E2%80%99+Attitudes+to+and+Usage+of+Academic+Feedback+Provided+Via+Audio+Files.&searchHistoryKey= Morgan, D. L. (1988). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. Planning and

Research Design for Focus Group, pp: 32-46. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Reterived From:

http://www.uk.sagepub.com/gray3e/study/chapter18/Book%20chapters/Plannin

g_and_designing_focus_groups.pdf

76

Nicol, D. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) ‘Formative assessment and self regulated

learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice’, Studies in

Higher Education 31(2). Retrieved From:

http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/rap/docs/nicol.dmd.pdf

Nicol, D. (2010). From monologue to dialogue: Improving written feedback in mass higher education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), Orsmond, P. and Merry, S. (2011). Feedback alignment: effective and ineffective links between tutors’ and students’ understanding of coursework feedback. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 36,125–136. Retrieved From: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/.VAMUtfRDsvQ Pryor, J. & Crossouard, B. (2008). A socio-cultural theorisation of formative

assessment. Oxford Review of Education 34: 1–20. Retrieved from:

http://orgs.man.ac.uk/projects/include/experiment/pryor_crossouard.pdf

Ribchester, C., France, D. & Wakefield, K. (2008). It was just like a personal

tutorial: Using podcasts to provide assessment feedback. In HE Academy Annual

Conference 2008, Harrogate, 1.7.08 – 3.7.08. Retrieved from:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/events/annualconference/2008/A

nn_conf_2008_Chris_Ribchester

Rotherham, B. (2008), Sounds Good: Quicker, better assessment using audio feedback. 1 (1), 1-7. Retrieved from: http://sites.google.com/site/soundsgooduk/Home

Rotherham, B. (2009). A word in Your Ear. Proceeding: A word in Your Ear: Audio Feedback 2009: Sheffield Hallem University, United Kingdom. Retrieved From: http://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/docs/AWIYE-proceedings-final.pdf Rotheram, B. (2009) ‘Sounds Good’ Practice tips on using digital audio for assessment feedback. 1, 1-7. Retrieved from

77

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb3VuZHNnb29kdWt8Z3g6NWQyYjg5ODMyMTM5MGQxMA

Sadler, D. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18(2):119-144, Retrieved from http://pdf.truni.sk/e-ucebnice/iktv/data/media/iktvv/Symposium_LTML_Royce%20Sadler_BFormative_Assessment_and_the_design_of_instructional_systems.pdf Sale, J.E.M., Lohfeld, L.H. & Brazil, K. (2002). Revisiting the quantitative,

qualitative debate: Implications for mixed-methods research. Quality & Quantity,

36(1), pp.43–53. Retrieved from:

http://www.soc.uoc.gr/socmedia/papageo/implications%20for%20mixed-

methods%20research.pdf

Sipple, S. (2007). Ideas in practice: Developmental writers' attitudes toward audio

and written feedback. Journal of Developmental Education, 30(3), 22-31.

Sofaer, S. (1999). Qualitative methods: what are they and why use them? Health

Services Research, 34(5 Pt 2), pp.1101–1118. Retrieved From:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1089055/

Times Higher Education. (2014). United Kingdom: National Student Survey.

Retrieved From: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/national-student-

survey-2014-results-show-record-levels-of-satisfaction/2015108.article

78

Appendix -A Online Questionnaire

79

80

81

82

APPENDIX B- INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are the current feedback (GradeMark) practices and experiences?

2. Do current feedback methods aid students to improve in the future

assessments?

3. Is current feedback method time consuming?

4. Do students go through the whole feedback?

5. What are the perceptions of staffs using audio feedback?

6. Why haven’t the Department (ISchool) use audio feedback?

83

APPENDIX C- ETHICS FORMS

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

APPENDIX –D ACCESS TO DISSERTATION

94

Appendix- National Student Survey (2014)

National Student Survey 2014: UK results

National Student SURVEY

2013

National Student SURVEY

2014

Questions Satisfied* Satisfied

1-4 The teaching on my course

86% 87%

5-8 Assessment and feedback

72% 72%

9-12

Academic support

80% 81%

13-15

Organisation and management

78% 78%

16-18

Learning resources

84% 85%

19-21

Personal development

82% 82%

22 Overall satisfaction

85% 86%

95

Ranking of the University (2014)- Overall Satisfaction

2013 14

Royal College of Music 89 80

Royal Holloway, University of London 89 89

University of Sheffield 89 90

University of Warwick 89 87

University of Winchester 89 89