Feedback

The following four points apply to all taught courses.

1. "At the start of each academic year students should be informed of the feedback opportunities available in that year and the main goals of feedback at that stage in their studies. Information must be provided in programme handbooks, unit outlines and course materials to inform students of the mechanisms by which they will receive feedback and the forms it will take for both formative and, where appropriate, summative work." (Article 5)

Please identify on all course guides and outlines exactly what forms of feedback exist on that course. For this purpose we have developed a School Statement on Feedback which you may or may not wish to use or adapt in your course guide (some Departments, such as Social Anthropology, have also developed their own programme statements on feedback, which you may also wish to refer to):

"The School of Social Sciences is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student’s work. The main forms of feedback on this course are ********. We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SOSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Blackboard; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials."

2. "An opportunity must exist in all units for formative feedback." (Article 6)

This can include non-assessed or assessed work, so long as the feedback on the assessed work is returned in good time for the students to make use of it in preparation for any further assessed work on the course. Every course guide will need to indicate the opportunities for formative feedback available on the course.

3. "Students should be given clear information on the assessment process and the grading criteria applied to each assessment. Grade descriptors used should be consistent across the units in a given programme and should be readily accessible to students in unit and programme handbooks or equivalent. Assignment of a grade is an important aspect of feedback and should be provided wherever possible. Schools should also expedite the adoption of a common set of grade descriptors across all programmes..." (Article 8)

You may want to refer students to the existing SoSS Grade Descriptors.

4. "For all formative assessments and assessed coursework, feedback will normally be provided within 15 working days after the final submission deadline or exceptionally, and subject to prior approval by the faculty, within 20 working days after the final submission deadline; extensions to 20 working days will be approved on academic grounds only and must be clearly communicated to students in advance." (Article 10)

We are applying for the 20 day exemption for all courses with over 300 students. If you feel that your course may require this exemption, please make a reasoned case to Amanda Brereton.

Please also note that these deadlines do not apply to dissertations.

For more information on the University’s current commitments please refer to the new University Feedback Policy.

Undergraduate Feedback forms

The feedback forms have been designed to ensure consistency in the organisation and quality of feedback, while recognising that each discipline is a distinct intellectual enterprise with its own preferred conventions and criteria. The following are the standard templates for each department:

Postgraduate Taught Feedback forms

The feedback forms have been designed to ensure consistency in the organisation and quality of feedback, while recognising that each department is a distinct intellectual enterprise with its own preferred conventions and criteria. The following are the standard templates for each department.