FULT Module 5: Assessment and Feedback

The pre-session video featuring Prof David Boud was brilliant with many important points to take home. As David says, feedback should be ongoing and not just an end product. His suggestion on putting more effort towards providing feedback during the course of the semester rather than at the end when it is mostly pointless is very valid and logical. David's other suggestion about moving feedback from an act performed by teachers to that done by students would not just activate students due to the change in dynamic but also enhance the overall learning and teaching experience as well as foster a sense of community and belonging.

I agree with the point about students not always wanting feedback and it being imposed on them. However, feedback is an important part of learning, even if it is not always welcome. Maybe it would be helpful to evaluate how much and how often students want feedback at the beginning of the course? It is definitely wise to avoid emphasis on reminding students about assessments and focus on enriching their learning and overall experience, which takes us back to the concept that has resounded in every module - it is all about student-centred learning.

Reviewing the five principles of the UNSW draft assessment policy made me reflect on the assessment practices of my current teaching course based on the following prompts:

a. What do you think is the intent of this principle?

b. In what way do your current assessment practices reflect this principle?

1. Assessment is designed to guide and enhance student learning.

a. To emphasise the importance of providing constructive and meaningful feedback to not only achieve optimal learning outcomes for the course/program but translate students' learning into real-world practice in future.

b. When marking assignments through the Turnitin GradeMark tool, I provide students feedback not just on what they have done wrong/not done for the purpose of the assignment, but also pointers for improving their analytical and presentation skills, and other relevant information.
 

2. Student learning is assessed against learning outcomes and expected standards of performance.

a. To set guidelines for equal assessment of student performance, especially across multiple assessors.

b. Clear assessment and grading criteria have been set by the course convenor for expected outcomes in the class group discussions I facilitate, as well as for the individual written assignment I mark via Moodle. These criteria put the students and assessor on common ground for understanding and providing performance results, respectively. 

3. Assessment provides credible information on student achievement.

a.  To ensure integrity of the assessment process.

b.  Confidentiality of the students' assignments and results as well as strict deadlines for submission of assignments via the Moodle platform ensure security and equity of the assessment process. Also, review of the course assessment by the faculty education committee at the end of the semester provides the assessor(s) feedback on their work.

4. Assessment is fair and provides all students an impartial opportunity to demonstrate their learning.

a. To ensure equal opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning irrespective of their differences as individuals.

b.  All students in the course are required to do the same assessment tasks, guided by clear criteria and marking rubrics. Sufficient preparation time and ample opportunity for discussion and clarification with the instructor prior to completion allow for students to alleviate possible shortcomings in the assessment tasks. The tasks have been designed taking into consideration with their workload and level of understanding in relation to the assessment topic.

5. Assessment develops students’ abilities to evaluate their own and peer’s work.

a.  To promote peer and self-assessment of students' work towards cultivating independent learning.

b.  In the class discussions I facilitate, the students relate to and build upon their peers' ideas. Feedback on their class performance halfway through the semester as well as the individual written assignment provides opportunity for self-evaluation. The third assessment task in the course is a group assignment, which provides students a platform for analysing and commenting on the work of their peers.

Following Module 5, I revised my flipped learning lesson plan from Module 2 to include a self and peer-assessment component, which was inspired by the pre-session activity of reviewing assessment methods as well as the post-session standards-based rubric activity. I created an assessment rubric for the first time during this module and found the constructive feedback from peers very encouraging and helpful, which I used to revise the rubric.

FULT Module 5: Assessment and Feedback

FULT Module 4: Evaluation

In his inspiring talk, Prof John Hattie emphasised on the importance of the teacher's mindset; I agree that teachers are role models to most students and the higher their thinking and standards, the better their teaching and therefore student learning will be. The stark contrast between Activators and Facilitators is very intriguing; I feel university teachers these days seem to be pushed to do more facilitating than activating due to time and resource constraints, in spite of most having an activating mindset. Being an activator or facilitator largely depends upon the context. For instance, in flipped scenarios, the teacher but naturally becomes a facilitator. It is important for academics to strike a balance between activating and facilitating, which I think is a skill that is developed over time with experience. 

I also agree with John's comment on building trust, it is a two-way road and the foundation to a healthy teacher-student relationship and overall classroom scenario. The teacher should make students feel safe and comfortable to gain their trust, and learn to trust their students as well. How a teacher makes allowances for students to commit mistakes, helps them make amends and assists in doing things the right way is important not just for successful learning but also influences students' coping in real-world situations. This semester, one of my students was distraught to find out that they had submitted a work-in-progress draft of the assignment following release of the assessment results. By giving the student a chance to submit the completed draft for reassessment, the course convenor and I showed trust in the student. It was evident by the promptness and quality of the resubmitted draft that the student had a genuine case.

Constant evaluation of one's teaching is as important as the teaching itself. There are many models for reflecting upon teaching (such as the ones devised by Gibb, Bond & Walker, Schon, Brookfield) which all advocate an autobiographical lens alongside feedback from peers, students, theory and learning analytics. At this stage, the first three types of teaching evaluation are what I would use the most. For the purpose of this module, I performed a self-assessment of my teaching. I used this lens since there was no time to get feedback from the students or a peer, and I tend to be quite critical about myself. Following the self-evaluation using relevant parts of the teaching self-assessment grid, I learnt that I can reflect upon my own teaching without being biased. I realised that all my students do actively participate in the tutorial, and I could equip myself with more real-world knowledge about the discussion topics for their benefit. I would definitely recommend this method of teaching evaluation to peers as we are usually the best judge (and worst critic) of our own abilities. 

In the face-to-face session facilitated by Lorenzo, my group focussed on discussing student experience, with all of us agreeing that it is the overall experience during a course/program than just within the classroom. As teachers, it is our duty to enrich the students' experience in every possible way. Based on what I gained from this module, my evaluation plan for the future is to incorporate self, peer and student feedback as a default for any course I teach, and to use theory to analyse these evaluations. 

Self-evaluation of this post using Criterion 2 of the e-portfolio feedback rubric: Very good

FULT Module 4: Evaluation

FULT Module 3: Teaching for Learning

   ...Students must make what they learn part of themselves.

  - Chickering & Gamson

The point raised over and again in this module is that teaching for students to learn is what matters, not teaching for the sake of good teaching. No matter how well prepared and enthusiastic the teacher or interesting the course content is, it is vital to create and facilitate an environment conducive to student learning. 

I am with Dr Susan Banki on the responsibilities of a good teacher - subject knowledge and thorough preparation prior to class is paramount as is planning and thinking in advance about how students learn as well as getting the point across to them effectively. These coupled with qualities such as being passionate about teaching and being able to engage students can achieve excellent learning outcomes. The flipped classroom environment that Susan creates for her students is highly stimulating. I really like how her students had the opportunity to not just apply garnered theoretical knowledge but also had a platform to 'voice out' with each of the flipped activities designed by her. As Susan says, it really does take courage to do something out of the box. And she definitely has that, along with the mentioned balance of humility and confidence. All in all, an admirable and effective approach of flipped learning and teaching.

During this module, I have garnered many insights on teaching for learning, through the pre-session activities and classroom discussions, from the case scenario of disparity between Malin and her students, and RMIT's inclusive teaching principles. Constant 'unstuffing' of the curriculum (which was touched upon in the very first module), simplifying concepts for easy understanding by students, encouraging student interaction on different types of media, boosting their confidence, understanding their background and psyche, facilitating student collaboration (via Think-Pair-Share, for example) and providing ongoing feedback are different strategies to optimise the students' learning experience.

For the purpose of peer observation, I attended a lecture by a senior academic of my faculty. Interest in the topic was the main reason for choosing this particular session. This was the first time I attended a lecture to learn how it was delivered rather than focus on the content. The interactive learning platform was new to me and very intriguing; being able to write notes alongside the lecture slides on their mobile devices along with intervallic quizzes to assess students' uptake of each section of the lecture kept them constantly focussed during the hour. The academic's enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject, poise, easygoing demeanour, humour, use of interesting analogies, real-world examples and simple language to break down complex medical concepts, were all crucial in keeping the students engaged throughout the lecture. 

In addition to answering questions and acknowledging comments throughout the session, he explained the rationale behind the quiz answers and was keen to take questions from students at the end of the lecture. Apart from being inspired by the academic's style of teaching, I intend to use the interactive learning platform when I start lecturing. In spite of the woes faced by many academics like Joelle Renstrom due to use of mobile devices in the classroom, technology has become an indispensable part of teaching and is here to stay, given the advent of blended and flipped learning. 

Toohey's model for student-centred learning

Here is my proposed teaching strategy based on Toohey's framework and constructs garnered from this module.

Image source:  https://universityteachingandlearning.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/reflective-post-on-teaching-strategies/tooheys-learning-process-model-hughes/

FULT Module 3: Teaching for Learning

FULT Module 2: Educational Design

                                                    Focus on

                                            your Learners by
                                                   Involving them

                                         in the Process

- Barbi Honeycutt

Flipped classroom learning is increasingly used in university teaching and seems like a useful approach to make learning interesting and effective.

However, there appear to be certain issues with implementing flipped classrooms. It is difficult to give personal attention to a large number of students, 80 in the case of Dr Alex Escobar, making flipped classrooms challenging in terms of availability of resources and costs involved. Prior-recorded video lectures, though beneficial for students in terms of more flexibility and time to reflect on the content, would affect the spontaneity of classroom teaching. Also, not every student can allocate that much time in advance to familiarise themselves with the learning resources. I feel this approach would be very useful for undergraduate students towards the beginning of their program, for whom taking notes during lectures (and attending lectures itself) is a relatively new experience.

Apart from the fact that his classroom activities are so clear and well-structured, I like how Dr Steven Toaddy records them so that he can later give students reflections on their performance. This would enrich the students' overall learning experience and make learning a two-way road. Also, having a possible incentive to be a 'model student' for future learning through the semester would better motivate the students to perform well in class. Shorter lectures, in addition to saving time, would be better in terms of holding students' attention, which has been attested by Illysa Izenberg and other academics. With regards to Steven's comment that availability of Q and A time at the end of the class is a benefit of having a flipped classroom approach, I feel this should be a given in any type of learning scenario. Also, incorporating feedback from students should be an ongoing process for evaluation and revision of educational design.

Bloom's Taxonomy

My understanding of flipped learning from the above resources and lively Q & A session with Elizabeth and Sebastian from the UNSW School of Physics is that the process of designing and implementing a flipped classroom program is more complex than structuring conventional lectures or tutorials. But from what they've mentioned, once set up and running, such programs are very effective and need little restructuring over time. This approach seems daunting to me most probably because it is a relatively new concept and also because I am quite a novice in terms of university teaching. The sense of community and belonging that Sebastian mentioned, and enhanced interaction between students and teachers which happens with active learning are great incentives for embracing the flipped learning approach. Other potential benefits of flipped learning are increased lecture attendance and class participation leading to better performance in assessments and grasp of the eventual learning outcomes.

There are many models of student-centred learning, Toohey's and RASE for example, to draw constructs for designing flipped learning lessons. Irrespective of the framework used and content of the course, learning objectives and teaching methods must be clear for students to gain the most out of flipped learning. Eventually, the purpose of flipping classrooms is to enable students to move up the levels of learning, from the factual to meta-cognitive. To quote the terms furnished by Jens in the face-to-face session, the ultimate aim of teaching is to facilitate navigation from pedagogy to heutagogy.

Self-evaluation of this post using Criterion 2 of the e-portfolio feedback rubric: Very good

Update:
My revised flipped classroom lesson plan following Module 5.  

Image source: Twitter

FULT Module 2: Educational Design