Engaging academic staff as co-creators of an online resource to enhance Assessment and Feedback Practice across an Institution

Assessment is a key component of the role of lecturers in Higher Education (Nicol, 2007). Assessment determines largely what students see as being important, how they decide to allot their time, and how in general they understand the nature of their role as students (Gibbs and Simpson, 2004) Timely feedback on assessment has a major influence on the quality of student learning achieved (Black and Wiliam, 1998) and can impact upon student retention within the first year (Yorke and Longden, 2008) The selection of appropriate assessment methods in conjunction with the provision of appropriate feedback to students by a lecturer can not only increase the effective use of time spent on assessment related processes but can also significantly enhance the meaningful engagement by students across a programme and their overall learning experience. The Resources for Assessment and Feedback Toolkit (RAFT) project was established in January 2013 to develop a toolkit of resources, guidelines, templates and case studies to support DIT staff in choosing the most appropriate forms of assessment and feedback. The project draws from the experience of colleagues in DIT and aims to produce a comprehensive collection of resources that can be referenced by academic staff. An online survey was used to collect initial data regarding current Assessment and Feedback practice within the institute. The 12 DIT RAFT Coordinators (3 per College) appointed as part of the project are using this information as a way to engage with other academic staff to identify and explore examples of assessment and feedback methods that have proven to be effective (or not) on programmes across the Institute. This Presentation will report on initial data collected from the survey and follow-up interviews to explore key issues, challenges and solutions associated with assessment and feedback on assessment that are emerging from this study