Formative coursework submissions

[damekindness]

On one of our large programmes most of the modules are coursework based. For each of those modules there is an opportunity for a formative submission prior to final summative submission (of around 500 words which has written feedback but no indicative marks). Around three quarters will take the opportunity.

Is this the norm across the sector? It appears to have crept in over the past few years at my place - adding to already difficult academic workloads. We used to restrict this to first years who were finding their academic feet - but it's now across all years.

York does it for online masters programmes the they are a supreme waste of time for me as a student because you’re not getting marked and often tutors treat them as the lowest proriority so you don’t always get feedback before your summative assignment. It’s why I left the course.

A third-year undergraduate asked me about this at the start of the current semester (also specifying 500 words, to be submitted informally for feedback ahead of the deadline). I was horrified. There's no way I could cope on top of everything else we're expected to do.

We've always operated on the understanding that we don't provide written feedback on drafts of coursework. The only exception is the BA dissertation (we used to read entire dissertations in draft; now we read up to 5,000 words).

We used to get ‘x’ amount of credit in our workload allocation for marking when it was one assignment at the end of term.

Then came alone the debates about it not being fair for a whole module mark to rest on a single assignment (yes, will agree in part) but then came the move to multiple assessments and then adding in formative assignments and then latterly adding in ‘authentic’ assignments.

Now, for the exact same amount of workload allocation credit, I am expected to mark a minimum of 3 assignments because together they ‘add up’ to one 4000 word paper. Uh, no they do not.

It is called work intensification and I feel increasingly crushed by the workload. Every single year something new is added (generally by the programme administrators who do not teach but get to be the ones who ‘translate’ student voice) and nothing ever gets taken off our workload.

Big push for formative feedback here too (EU university, not UK). The formative feedback does not have to come in 1 on 1 written form from the course coordinator, so I use a mix of peer-feedback, collective written feedback (identifying key themes across the assessments that students could improve on), or oral feedback on ideas - either individually or in groups. It's still more work than providing no formative feedback, but less than having to provide written feedback to each student individually.

At my place formative feedback always comes up as something students would like more of.
I started introducing weekly homework under Covid in one of the courses I teach - the course is a bout practical skills that build on from one week to the next so it makes sense to make sure you master the week's content before moving on to the next week. Each of the assignments asks the students to apply the skills learned in the last 4-5 weeks.
During Covid I had about 90% submitting homework the first few weeks, dropping to perhaps 3-4 people towards the end.
This year I had 3-4 people submitting in the first week. For several weeks I've had exactly zero.
We've had our first assignment a couple of weeks ago, results were not disastrous, but were not brilliant either, and most of the issues I could have easily caught and given feedback on had homework being submitted.
In my opinion, the way that student feedback is collected and acted on needs to change profoundly. Students keep saying that they'd like more of this or that, then when you offer it no one engages. Has also happened in my department with respect to "community-building" and social opportunities, which staff have organized on top of their already demanding workloads only for a few people to turn up.

We have a feedback cover sheet where they can ask for feedback on specific areas, but it doesn't feed into the grades. It's not that hard to fill in as not everyone asks for it and it's no extra work for the students either.

Students keep saying that they'd like more of this or that, then when you offer it no one engages. Has also happened in my department with respect to "community-building" and social opportunities, which staff have organized on top of their already demanding workloads only for a few people to turn up.

Students often complain about how module evaluation at the end of the module only helps the next cohort. So I implemented a mid term evaluation survey. Out of 600 students a grand total of two filled it in.

During covid, our students clamoured for a return to f2f teaching. When we did, hardly any showed up.

i really don’t know how else to ‘engage’ them.

Oh the other thing we've recently started doing is feeding back to students (from staff) at staff-student meetings!

I love this. What has the reaction been, @worstofbothworlds ?

Well, the students who attend the staff-student meetings are the class reps i.e. the ones who actually engage - but reports have been that they are happy with it!
They are usually the ones who are already asking us to say "please don't talk in lectures" anyway.

It sounds like your place is trying to find a reasonable balance. Mine is acting more like what @DrBlackbird and @aridapricot are reporting. Every suggestion the student reps report must be implemented even though take up is minimal to nonexistent. It is a big burden for nothing.

I would be happy to do a significant subset of this work if we had any evidence of student interest. Instead it is as if they want a new flavour of ice cream every week and we must provide it, without dropping any of the old flavours.

One of the big Oxbridge selling points is the vast amount of formative assessment - as supervisions etc. BUT - and it's a big but - undergraduate supervisions are paid by the colleges so there is some incentive or at least recognition that this is 'extra work'. It's not paid well - and there has just been strike action recently to improve it. But it does recognise that a) formative assessment is important to improve and b) it is demanding on instructors and needs to be recompensed pro rata. I am a PG instructor in an Oxbridge dept and it is clear that this formative work has not been done with our incoming students from elsewhere. When our UG students are asked to do (theoretically optional) formative assignments - they do it. If they don't' - they are reported to their director of studies (although there are usually no particular consequences...). Non compliance is rare. And this system of formative assignments works - they improve a lot (anyone doing this would improve a lot!). It takes student motivation to improve but also pay for instructors - it could never work here without the latter. I'm not sure how this could be rolled out elsewhere - but I see the difference it makes.