Accessing your marks and feedback

Marks and feedback will normally be accessed online through the Gradebook in Blackboard sites. All marks shown on Blackboard are provisional until they have been agreed by an assessment board, after which your final results will be published on My Student Record. You can calculate your approximate degree outcome using the Degree Calculator which you can find at Marking and Grades. Please note that this tool is for indicative purposes only and your final degree outcome may be different

Provisional marks and feedback on assessment are normally given within 3 working weeks (excluding student vacation periods, i.e.. Christmas, Easter and summer breaks) of the coursework submission deadline. There may be exceptional situations in which the 3 week turnaround is not possible but in these situations your Module Leader will inform you of the delay. Expected feedback return dates are published in your Assessment Statement on My Student Record.

All marks shown on Blackboard are provisional until they have been agreed by an assessment board, after which your final results will be published on My Student Record. Feedback and provisional marks on all coursework assessment tasks will be made available to students online, through Blackboard. There are several ways your Module Leader/tutor could provide feedback on your assessments in Blackboard. Your Module Leader/tutor should inform you in what format they have issued feedback.

Types of feedback

Here are some examples of the types of feedback you may receive:

• Typed comments and annotations: this is when tutors use comments and annotation within assignments, so that feedback is positioned 'in context' against specific points in students' original work.
• Audio: this is when tutors use a variety of portable recording devices to verbally record and provide students with audio commentary of their work. Audio feedback can be provided on any assignment or assessment task, and it is claimed that more detailed, in-depth and personal feedback can be provided in this way.
• Electronic marking grid: electronic marking grids can be used to provide individual feedback to students based on their performance against the assessment criteria.
• Video/Screencast: this is where screencast software can be used to highlight specific points or demonstrate specific actions in the student's original work while providing detailed audio commentary and feedback. When returned, students can see the process that the marker went through in reviewing and discussing their work.
• PebblePad/ webfolios: e-Portfolios are increasingly used. These can be constructed, for example, in blogs, through the Blackboard Portfolio tool or via PebblePad (see further guidance below). As well as being a record of learning that has taken place a portfolio can also provide a reflective record of professional development enabling the individual to document progress.
• Face to face: face-to-face feedback can be formal or informal, received from tutors or peers and take place within class (e.g. discussions, peer review activity) or outside class (e.g. staff office hours, within group work and learning sets). This form of feedback provides two-way communication between the students and tutor, giving you the opportunity to ask questions.
• Exam: the minimum expectation for exam feedback is for the teaching team to provide 1:1 examination feedback upon request by the student and provide one additional type of examination feedback (this is not applicable to final year students within their final semester). Exam scripts cannot be returned to students, but the content of the script and tutor feedback comments can be used to facilitate feedback. Student feedback requests are to be made normally within 3 months but in exceptional cases or where necessary e.g. whole year re-assessment, feedback could be given up to a year after the exam taking place.

Formative and summative feedback

Feedback can be about your individual assignments and your contribution to group work. This can include a draft that you have prepared and your ideas about your subject. Good feedback can help you to self assess your work against assessment criteria and help you work out what you have done wrong in an assignment. You can use this feedback to help improve your future assignments, to understand your subject better and approach work in new modules. This feedback can take the form of: personal written feedback; online objective feedback; feedback grids; audio feedback; generic feedback; peer feedback; self-regulated feedback; feed forward; dialogic feedback. Feedback can come from different people such as your course leader, module leader, tutors and fellow students. It can be given both formatively and summatively.

Formative feedback

Refers to the information and advice students receive about their performance and how they can improve it but do not receive a mark. The timing of formative feedback is often important so students can apply it, for example before assessment tasks are attempted. Formative feedback is usually given throughout modules. Some examples of this are:

• comments from seminar tutors within the timetabled preparation and feedback workshops.
• answers to questions and comments made in class.
• draft project plan.
• the views of your peers in group discussions.

You might also proactively seek feedback from peers, tutors, contacts at work or from your placement. Seeking feedback and acting upon it is one of the skills that will stand you in good stead in your working life so make sure you practice that skill wherever you can.

Summative feedback

Refers to the formal comments made by the academic with responsibility for assessing a student's work so that the student is clear about their level of achievement, the way their work has been assessed, and how their work could be improved. Summative feedback should help students to reflect on what they have done and how they can do better and, in this sense, is also formative in nature. Summative feedback provides a measure of students' progress against intended learning outcomes using specified criteria at key points in the course. Students receive a grade for their work, that can form part of their final classification.

Get ready for feedback

• Find out what sort of feedback you will be getting on your module assignments: will it be written or verbal or online?
• Who will be giving the feedback: the module leader, seminar tutor, other students on the module?
• When will the feedback be given?
• If this information isn't clear from your module guide, ask you module tutor – they are there to help.
• Feedback on your ideas and way of approaching your assignments is likely to be given during class discussions – so be there to receive it!

Understand feedback

• Read or listen to it carefully and think about how it applies to your work or ideas.
• Think about how it relates to the assessment criteria.
• If it is written feedback which is hard to read let your seminar tutor know – they may not realise their writing is illegible.
• If you don't understand your feedback ask! Feedback is a dialogue. Be prepared to ask your seminar tutor, your module leader of your academic advisor/personal tutor about it.

Use your feedback

• To identify what you have done well and what you can improve in your work.
• To plan subsequent pieces of work.
• To prepare work in other modules. Feedback given in one module is often relevant for another. For instance, feedback on researching your ideas or giving a presentation will probably be as useful for assignments in Year 3 as it was in Year 1.
• To develop your understanding of your subject.