The pros and cons of using audio feedback to support

student learning

Dr Darren Comber Centre for Learning & Teaching

Dr Lindsay McPherson School of Biological Sciences

Outcomes

What?Why?How?Does it work?

1. What?

• PG Certificate programme 2010• Staff as students• Small number (n=16)• Formative assessment (low risk)

1. What?

Formative assessment:

1. Improve student learning2. Opportunity for feedback3. Clarifies what good performance looks like4. Compare current progress with desired goals5. Motivational – positive

2. Why?

“…there is strong evidence that feedback messages are invariably complex and difficult to decipher, and that students require opportunities to construct actively an understanding of them…before they can be used to regulate performance.”

(Nicol & McFarlane-Dick, 2006: 201)

2. Why?

1. Speaking can be quicker than typing2. Miscommunication / alignment / nuance3. Making sound files is becoming quicker,

cheaper and easier

Why not?

Generation Y?

3. How?

1. Acquire digital dictaphone with onboard USB

2. Record feedback on the dictaphone (saved as .mp3)

3. Plug the dictaphone directly into the PC

4. Drag & drop .mp3 files to their own folder

5. Rename, check then attach to email

3. How?

Digital dictaphone

Your PC

3. How?

• Files automatically segmented• No software involved• No technical knowledge beyond attaching files

to emails• 3 mins feedback: 4mb• Sony ICD-UX70 digital dictaphone (cost c. £80)• 1Gb can record 290 hours

4. Does it work?

1. Recipients really liked it– Personal– Nuanced– Feedback is threaded (+ and a single -)

2. Easy and quick3. Data protection: same as written files4. Generated lots of interest already

Things I learned whilst trying this

• Muttering in the corner…• Divert the phone• Waving the dictaphone• Indicative notes can help• Easy to get carried away• Double-check e-mail recipient• No it doesn’t work if the recipient is deaf

Case Study -

Audio feedback for large classes

Case study – audio feedback for large classes

• Level 3 SBS skills course (~130 students)• Produce sections of report and receive

feedback (summative)• Produce final report (summative)

1. Hand in draft intro &

materials and methods

2. Peer review another

students’ intro & materials

and methods

3. Hand in draft results

and discussion

4. Peer review another

students’ results and discussion

5. Hand in final report

FEEDBACK

Research Questions

1. Is there a difference in marks for final report between students given audio or written feedback?

2. Is there a difference in the time it takes to produce the feedback?

3. What attitudes do the students have about the two feedback methods?

What did we do?

• Randomly split class in half using random number generator

• Told class we would be giving two feedback types and why but didn’t indicate which we thought was better

• Measured the amount of time it took to mark and give feedback for each piece of work

• After receiving all feedback students given a questionnaire about their attitudes

Preliminary Results - groups

• No difference in median CAS grades achieved in exercises between groups

Preliminary Results - time

time_peer_intro time_intro time_peer_res time_res0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

audiowritten

Exercise

Tim

e ta

ken

to co

mpl

ete

feed

back

(min

s)

• Time taken to give feedback appears to be much less for audio feedback

• Difference in time depends on length of work

(up to 4 minutes difference per student = 8.5 hours!)

How was it for staff?

• It was less stressful– Able to remain fresh– Easier to prepare meaningful comments– Prevents monotonously writing the same things

over and over again (possibly leading to illegibility)• Able to give more information overall• Able to give lots of encouragement• Not able to change small-scale issues in text

(e.g. punctuation etc.)

How was it for students?

• Students currently filling out a questionnaire on how they found the different types of feedback

• Specifically asked about:– Usefulness of feedback

• Relevance• Clarity• Did they learn from it?

– Whether they thoughtthat feedback methodtype would affect marks

Final results will be in in a few weeks!