Infusing assessment and feedback
After 12 years of full-time university teaching, Leo surprised himself by thinking that assessment is, well, fun. Where was the usual “Another day in the factory” feeling he usually fought against while assignment submissions to be evaluated piled up in the MyCourses?
It had somehow happened gradually.
First, one of the language teachers had told him that she was giving feedback to students in short two-minute videos. It was a build-in feature in the MyCourses editor. She was saving writing time, and the students seemed to appreciate the personal touch they felt watching her speaking to them about their work. He had tried that, too, and it was a refreshing change. Using only audio was handy during numerous bad hair days. He had even used longer Panopto videos in some courses to share the submitted document on screen and review it thoroughly. There was so much more “tonality” in feedback by using gestures and facial expressions and all.
Next, he had used the marking guide with frequently used comments as assessment and feedback. He was no more writing almost the same kind of feedback phrases again and again. It was not as personal, that´s for sure, but since he had opened the marking guide beforehand in the assignment, it was clear to the students how to achieve a particular grade.
Yesterday at lunch, one colleague from the school had ranted about how using rubrics in assessment had changed her life. It sounded exciting and something new, and he could not wait to try it out.
