Feedback and Marking

Feedback and Marking

Formative versus Summative

Marking work can be:

• summative meaning that its main purpose is assessing the student’s performance as part or all of the final grade that they will be awarded, or
• formative meaning that its main purpose is to provide feedback to the student on how they are progressing, or on whether their methods and results are correct.

The main point of feedback from formative assessment is that it should feed forward: that is, it should enable the student to perform better on something similar next time. Think of somebody learning to play tennis or golf with a coach: they try a shot/stroke once or twice, then a coach will explain how they can improve it (feedback) and then the learner tries again (feed forward) until they have mastered it. Ideally there should be a feedback cycle of attempt - feedback - try again, and this is a good way of thinking about things although it can be hard to achieve in a University course.

Purpose

In our lecture-based courses students are normally asked to hand in regular written work which is marked and returned to them. We often give credit for this (typically 5-15% of the total mark for the course) to encourage students but its main purpose is formative. For this to work well, it is essential that work is marked in a way that facilitates and encourages the learning process – in particular, beyond simply assigning marks, you should leave appropriate written feedback.

Feedback Guidelines

Ticks, crosses and total marks at the bottom of a question do not provide much useful feedback. (To continue the sports coach analogy, they are like Olympic judges holding up their score cards: a useful assessment of achievement but of limited learning value.) Please observe the following guidelines.

• Indicate clearly (if possible) where precisely the student has gone wrong. Remember that if the error they made was obvious to the student, they probably would not have made it!
• Where possible, explain a little more about why the thing you have identified is a mistake, and indicate if appropriate what would have been a better way of proceeding. (But you only have time for a few words - don't write whole essays. Also bear in mind whether the students will have access to a model solution.)
• Be constructive, polite and friendly.
• Be sympathetic: read what students have written and try and understand what they are trying to say. Remember that learning is a slow uncertain process and coursework marking is meant to facilitate it rather than judge it.
• Keep your comments objective: comment on the mathematics not on the student.
• Do write ‘Please ask about this’ if you think it necessary. This puts the onus on the student to seek help from you, or from MathsBase, etc. This can be particularly helpful if you think the student has a serious misunderstanding.
• Add positive comments as well as criticisms, for example commenting on a good idea, a question done well, an improvement from last week, etc. (If you are feeling informal, an occasional "smiley face" is a quick way of showing approval.)
• Do pass information on common mistakes or misconceptions to the lecturer/CO.
• Do remember that we are trying to teach good, accurate mathematical presentation.
• Try and give some helpful feedback even on correct or nearly correct answers. There is usually something we could suggest that would improve the student's work.
• In all this, exercise some judgement on what to comment on so that students get a sensible amount of feedback. Clumsy wording that you should remark on in an excellent piece of work might sensibly be ignored in one where more serious errors are being made

Important: Considering the above, returning a piece of work to a student with no written feedback is unacceptable.

Marking Standards

First and foremost, follow any marking instructions you are given by those setting the work.

Students are understandably very sensitive to variation in strictness of marking between tutors. (This is true even when, as is often the case, the marks for a given hand-in contribute only a very small amount to their final grade.) Talk to other tutors and try to keep your mark levels consistent with the rest of the tutors.

In a poor piece of work, try and find at least some things that you can give credit for.

Use the full range of marks: if about half of it is correct (or would have been correct but for an earlier error) you should give about half the marks.

Don't feel you have to take marks off for everything: for instance, if a calculation is worth just 2 marks and a minor numerical slip is made at the end, you should probably give 2/2 not 1/2.

To encourage students to think about a problem even if they can't see how to do it, we usually encourage them to write something about the problem even if it does not answer the question asked. For instance if a question asks for a proof of something for all positive integers n, and the student makes no progress except that they observe it is true for one or two small values of n, then you should try and give some sensible amount of credit for that if the mark scheme permits. (They have shown some good technique in exploring that to get a sense of the problem, and presumably they have also understood what the question is asking.)

Overall, have some regard for the psychology of what you are doing. Have high standards, so that students only get 100% if the work is done and presented really well. But at the same time think carefully about very low marks. If the marking scheme allows you the flexibility, you might decide with a poor effort that you imagine the student has worked hard at to give it 5 out of 10 rather than 3 or 4: the student will still realise it is not so good, but a really low mark may just be demoralising.

Returning and Collecting Work

The majority of large courses are likely to use electronic submission of coursework via Learn/Gradescope. The particular arrangements will vary so pay attention to instructions from each course organiser and course secretary. It is very important that you meet any deadlines set, and that you inform the relevant person if something happens which is going to prevent you from meeting a deadline.

Pay attention to any class rules about accepting hand-ins directly when they are supposed to be submitted online or at a lecture, or accepting them after a deadline. A sympathetic attitude is good, but students will be aggrieved if some tutors are following the rules strictly and others are not.

Students sometimes report having not gone to workshops because they were embarrassed to hand in partial work or worried about getting back something with a very low mark. Be thoughtful about these issues. Here are some suggestions:

When marking on paper you might place the final mark on the bottom of the last page rather than on the top of the first page. That way it will not get publicly displayed with the work on the table. (And students often put away work as soon as they have seen the mark rather than studying the feedback, so hiding it at the back has an added benefit.)

If a student has done poorly, ask to have a quick chat with them at the end of the workshop. End the chat on a positive, optimistic note.

Avoid anything that might be regarded by a sensitive student as a public humiliation.

Keep it impersonal: it is the work that may not meet our expectations, not the person.

Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct

In dealing with work that seems to be excessively similar to another student's, please bear in mind that for good pedagogical reasons we actively encourage collaboration on hand-in work. Point out to the students involved that after collaborating they should write down their own version of the hand-in and that identical work from students is not acceptable. Mention also that it is in their interests to get feedback on their work and not on somebody else's. Explain this to students where necessary and if it continues, refer the matter to the CO.