Challenge
Though the college adopted Feedback Studio in 2010, the full suite of features was not maximized. Teachers were still providing time-consuming handwritten feedback, and there was a debate on how to archive student papers. Feedback Studio was not linked to Moodle, either, rendering assignments inaccessible to tutors and students.
Senior Lecturer Clare Wolfenden noticed that Feedback Studio could enhance assessment processes: “I...thought, ‘We’ve got this resource that we’re actually not using to its full capacity that would give the students their own individualized, personalized feedback that they could access, and would allow the tutors to give the feedback in a way that we could all see.’”
Results
Step by step, Clare trained staff and championed the use of Feedback Studio across the College, hosting individual training sessions and becoming a go-to resource for her peers. The College integrated Feedback Studio and Moodle, so that assignments would be accessible to students, teachers, and College tutors alike. Additionally, all previous assignments could now be archived, allowing students to access and reference writing feedback from previous courses.
Use of Feedback Studio spread quickly across the whole campus with all top-up courses and all foundation degree courses using the service. All assignments are now submitted, marked, and graded online through Feedback Studio, so records are easily accessible and transparent. All the marks are exported so the college can analyze the date and integrate them into their own metrics.
Feedback Studio is now accessed through the college’s Moodle platform, rendering feedback easily accessible for students. Turnitin, in addition to keeping plagiarism incidences low, allows for quicker response and correspondence regarding the writing process. Clare states:
“Students really like the fact that they can easily engage with the feedback. They are also very positive about the speed with which their work is returned because it’s all online, rather than waiting for it to be written and posted; they have also commented on the depth of feedback offered within the actual text of their work.”
Additionally, the Teacher Education Program began using Feedback Studio, which familiarizes future teachers-in-training with a tool for academic integrity. According to Clare, “All staff involved in training tomorrow’s school teachers now use Turnitin [Feedback Studio].”