National Student Survey: Improving Assessment and Feedback
The National Student Survey (NSS) asks final year students to comment on all aspects of their courses. As well as helping to inform future students on their choice of course or institution, the survey is used as the basis of numerous league tables and receives widespread publicity.
The Teaching Excellence Initiative in Business School Learning and Teaching (TEI) is a radical rethink of staff and student attitudes to assessment and feedback and we suggest looking at our web pages in order to see how these can help you to re-imagine your approach. However, here we provide some thoughts particularly tailored to the NSS and possible ways of responding to it.
Ways of improving assessment and feedback
A weakness of the survey is the implied assumption that assessment is solely the responsibility of the teacher and that students are passive recipients of assessment activities and feedback. The TEI challenges this assumption. It builds upon established educational research in order to develop and implement a new approach to assessment and feedback.
Another common assumption is the belief that any attempt to improve students’ experiences of assessment and feedback will inevitably lead to increased staff workload. The TEI also challenges this assumption. It provides resources that teachers can use in order to create an environment rich with useful, high-quality feedback and that supports effective student learning without a negative impact on staff time.
There are four questions in the survey which specifically ask for student responses to their perceived experiences of assessment and feedback. On the following pages we show how the TEI provides teachers with a clear rationale and a set of practices to help to address each of these areas. In each case we situate the question by reference to the relevant Principle of Assessment and Feedback. We then use current educational research and practice to show how to help students become self-regulated learners.