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| Image from Kenn Delbridge, available under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license |
Which sounds simple enough, but when the workshops involve a group of people from a range of Higher Education Institutions coming up with Olympic themed-limericks and drawing pictures to illustrate... then you can see that it wasn't your ordinary event! In fact, it was a whole lot of fun as well as being really engaging and thought-provoking. Oh, and if you're wondering, the limerick exercise was a route into getting us to provide written feedback, reflect on that feedback and then have a go with audio feedback. It also got everyone talking - and if in the future I run a staff development session and there are limericks involved, then the organisers of this event are to blame! :o)
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| Our Olympic themed limerick illustration |
Our group were given Adobe Acrobat to insert voice comments on the 'script'. The advantage was that it's relatively straightforward. The issue for me, at least, was that it's seriously difficult to spot your comments once you've put them on a script. And the interface isn't intuitive in the slightest especially when it comes to reviewing or even editing your comment (the edit function is non-existent). Putting specific comments within the script also sounds like a good idea, but because of the lack of structure to this - where do students start when it comes to retrieving their feedback? - and the artificial fragmentation of breaking your comments into lots of short recordings was just a strange experience. You lose the flow of your thoughts. The temptation to be too curt is there. And from a student's perspective, the ability to quickly scan through comments is removed entirely - without indexing of comments, using them as an ongoing reflective tool is extremely difficult.
When we reviewed the feedback given by the group using Jing, this seemed far better. It felt like you were being talked through the feedback rather than just having it drop on you in individual chunks. It also felt as if it were a slightly more natural experience for the person giving feedback too - though obviously since this wasn't me, I'm only guessing!
Things that came out of this workshop? Don't script your feedback - it sounds dull and is dull to receive. However, do structure your feedback - help the learner to find their way through it, 'I'm going to be covering three things, a, b and c in this feedback' etc are helpful. It's useful to signpost which bits of the script you're talking about - with the mp3-only option this was particularly important since the script was not on-screen at the same time as the audio. Additionally, talk like a human being and personalise where possible!
It was interesting to hear about the 'A Personal Voice' project and 'AUDIBLE' as well from Jennifer Beard, University of Leicester. They looked at various aspects - Contiguity (in context vs out of context comments); Working memory (chunking feedback vs a single overall feedback file - presenting more material results in less understanding!); Personal vs. community experience (do you provide individual or group feedback?); Nuance (is it the way we say things or do we choose to say things differently via audio?). It will be good to see the results of their work - some of the initial findings were shared and a couple of things particularly stood out. Firstly, the fact that distance learning students didn't prefer audio feedback to written, especially compared to on-campus students who liked it far more. Secondly, students didn't just want icing on their feedback cake - they want sprinkles too... audio feedback is one thing but they like audio and written feedback. The fears of workload overload loom large, I fear.
After Jennifer came Warren Kidd who presented on his experience of using audio to deliver feedback to trainee teachers at the University of East London with 'Why haven't you written on my work?'. He's an engaging speaker and it was interesting to hear him say that he goes for a structured rather than scripted approach (confirming the earlier thoughts during the morning's sessions). Things to consider when thinking about structure:
- What is the purpose of recording?
- How long should the recording be? (theirs were around 3 - 4 mins)
- How should the recording start? ('Hello this is x giving you feedback on y, you may wish to have your assignment with you during this podcast etc..')
- When should the grade be disclosed? (they elected to do this towards the start of the feedback with the normal caveat about the grade needing to be confirmed by exam boards - randomly placing the grade was artificial and unhelpful)
- What is the relationship between what you do or don't write on students' work?
Warren also spoke about getting over the scariness of the mic through his work with producing podcasts prior to giving audio feedback (you can get a flavour of his podcasts on his blog) - how to get people through that particular issue is something to reflect on, I think. He emphasised the importance of giving feed forward and viewing the audio feedback as a form of personal tutorial. Although they have an anonymous marking policy they were able to adapt this to reveal the students' identities after marking - so, scripts were marked anonymously, but feedback given slightly later with identities known. This really helped them give that personal feedback and the feeling that students were being talked to as individuals. Warren played an example of his audio feedback and it really was great to have the opportunity to hear this. He recalled having seen - through chance - his student receiving their feedback and seeing them nodding along in agreement, then later mailing him to thank him for helping them understand points they'd previously just not grasped. It clearly is an engaging format for learners.
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| More drawing and limericks in workshops from now on, I think! |
Also, viewing feedback as being 'conversational' simply because you could hear the conversation doesn't mean it is a conversation if the participant is given no voice. In other words, it's still mono-directional in a way that a personal tutorial isn't.
Finally, if you're looking to audio as a way to make the marking and feedback process more efficient / easier, then I don't think you'll find that it is - especially if there's still a need to provide written feedback too. If anything, the workload seems to be expanding! This is definitely a point to ponder further!
A really interesting and valuable day - many thanks to the organisers at the University of Leicester!
Sarah
How do you sell it to academics though? When I suggest similar things the academics claim to not have the time and that it takes too long. Also from speaking to students at a few Staff/Student and society meetings the students i spoke to hated the idea.
ReplyDeleteI think that some people might feel it's easier to talk through comments - and therefore record audio - than it is to write them. If it increases student satisfaction / engagement then that too will be a driver. I would also say that if it helps students to grasp concepts better, i.e. they haven't understood the concept when explained in written form, then that too might be a plus point. However, bad feedback doesn't become better just because of the format.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as someone who's marked and written loads of feedback on student assignments I know that anything which increases that already lengthy (and necessary but tedious!) process longer would put me off. I think there have to be advantages to both students AND staff for it to become a more mainstream way of offering feedback.