Grades and feedback on coursework
- Feedback and provisional grades* will be provided online via the Blackboard Gradebook for all summative coursework at all levels of study. This includes both coursework tasks submitted electronically online and work that cannot be submitted online, e.g. artefacts and presentations.
- Where substantive written, audio or video feedback on individual draft or formative submissions has been provided, summative feedback can consist of a grade and a completed rubric.
- An electronic record of feedback provides improved clarity, addressing legibility of handwritten feedback. Consistency, as well as the security and convenience of the medium, provide benefits to students in addition to having access to all feedback for a course online and in one place.
- Blackboard has tools such as Bb Annotate, Rubrics, Audio/Video Feedback, and a text editor to generate feedback within the Gradebook. Alternatively, student work can be downloaded from Blackboard for annotating offline and re-uploading to the Gradebook. Other types of feedback can be generated offline and upload to the Gradebook including Word- or Excel-based marking grids; audio, video or screencast feedback generated using tools such as Panopto.
- This electronic feedback may be supplemented by face-to-face meetings with students and return of annotated scripts where appropriate to the discipline.
- Students must be informed in advance what the feedback approach is on the course. Getting students prepared for receiving feedback is crucial to help students engage with it.
- It is not the intention that a scanned record of handwritten feedback is uploaded to the Gradebook as electronic feedback as this may not address the issue of legibility raised by students.
*Provisional grades should be included in the Blackboard Gradebook and passed to Academic Administration to be processed in SITS and ratified through the Departmental Assessment Boards. SITS (via My Student Record) is the only place that students can access their full mark profile across all modules studied. These grades remain provisional until the Departmental Assessment Board has taken place and the grades are confirmed.
Feedback on exams
- The minimum expectation for exam feedback is to provide one-to-one examination feedback on request by the student. Students are responsible for contacting their Module Leader to request individual exam feedback. Requests should be made within ten working days of the release of ratified grades (post Department Assessment Board). For final year students in their final semester, only one-to-one feedback will be given on request, with priority being given to those students undertaking resits.
- Module/course teams will provide one form of examination feedback, as appropriate, to fit with teaching practice. This may be one of the following:
- Electronic generic feedback (via Blackboard) to a cohort on strengths and weakness of individual questions or the exam in general.
- Drop-in post exam session for feed-forward at the end of a semester or at the start of next semester.
- Exam scripts cannot be retained by students, but the content of the script and tutor feedback comments can be used to facilitate feedback.
- Provisional examination grades should be included in the Blackboard Gradebook and passed to Academic Administration to be processed in SITS and ratified through the Departmental Assessment Boards. SITS (via My Student Record) is the only place that students can access their full mark profile across all modules studied. These grades remain provisional until the Departmental Assessment Board has taken place and the grades are confirmed.
- Grade columns are not automatically created for exams as part of the assessment creation process. Unless you will set your exam up online in Blackboard using an assignment submission point or test, you will need to create a grade column manually.
Turnaround time to students
- Feedback to students should be given in time to inform subsequent and related coursework and examination assessments.
- Provisional grades (subject to ratification by Department Assessment Boards) on both coursework and examinations will be provided within three working weeks from the date of assessment submission (the date that the student submits the work). This excludes student vacation periods, i.e. Christmas, Easter and summer breaks.
- The University recognises that there are exceptional situations in which the three working weeks turnaround is not possible due to externally imposed constraints. Exceptions may be made through discussion with College Assistant Deans for Academic Development.
