Although it is not always possible to provide immediate and prompt feedback to students, feedback should be given timely while students are still mindful of the topic, assignment or performance in question.
6.4.1.3 Recommendation 3
ODL practitioners should rectify the shortcomings of face-to-face contact sessions arranged for ODL students. More specifically, the absence of tutors during contact sessions while students have travelled from far and incurred other financial expenses to attend to contact sessions, is among other such issues that need to be addressed.
177 6.4.1.4 Recommendation 4
There should be a conscious workload management system to circumvent the workload of tutors in ODL. One such proposal is to devise a quota system e.g. maximum of hundred and fifty students or any manageable number per tutor. This would also possibly counteract the longer turnaround time of feedback provision on assignments.
6.4.1.5 Recommendation 5
Another recommendation is for ODL institutions to have a tracking system or monitoring mechanism for the assignments movement, after submission by the students. This is to ensure that assignments are marked and returned to students in a stipulated timespan e.g. three weeks after submission.
6.4.2 Strategic level
With institutional commitment, strategies for optimising assessment feedback in ODL institutions are implementable and could lead to improved learning outcomes. Feedback can only yield desired results if it is a joint and shared responsibility of all stakeholders such as institutional leadership, students and tutors. Hence, there is a need to embark upon broader discussion on provision of feedback to students, who study via distance learning modes. This can be done through involvement and collaboration of distance education providers, tutors, students and student support providers, and instructional material designers.
6.4.2.1 Recommendation 6
In devising strategies for optimising feedback in ODL, tutors must take into consideration the course, influence of the faculty/department, epistemology and inter- disciplinary practices. Such strategies should be in line with the policies and statutes that regulate the assessment practice at institutions. One practical strategy is to tailor feedback according to the learning processes in a specific discipline. It is
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recommended that a collaborative approach with colleagues in the same faculty or department will foster any change in assessment feedback.
6.4.2.2 Recommendation 7
It is recommended that the ODL institutions should revisit their assessment policy and clearly stipulate the methods of assessment that should be used in ODL mode and these should include the alternative methods of assessment such as online assessment.
6.4.2.3 Recommendation 8
ODL institutions must attempt to employ a paradigm shift from content-based assessment to problem-solving and competency-based assessment, examinations of shorter duration, flexible time limits, open book examinations, self-assessment, peer assessment and feedback, oral assessment and use of ICT in assessment. However, whatever new assessment method is being decided upon, it must be implemented on an experimental or trial basis and should not be applied in totality right away. This will allow time to plan, evaluate and eradicate any hiccups encountered.
6.4.2.4 Recommendation 9
ODL institutions and dual university institutions must integrate education systems which allow students to choose freely between conventional methods and ODL mode on the basis of personal preference or individual convenience. The students should not be disadvantaged in either form of delivery and no distinctions must make it difficult for students to benefit from concurrent participation in either mode. Provision of sound administrative and academic support services are required to ensure students’ success in ODL mode. Therefore, leadership of ODL institutions must embrace the principles and methodologies of ODL and ensure parity of standards to deliver quality education via ODL mode.
179 6.4.2.5 Recommendation 10
The technology should be used to embed formative assessment into ODL mode. Tools supporting assessment, such as Blackboard, Moodle and Turnitin could be used to provide formative feedback. They have got, among others, the benefit of immediate feedback. ODL institutions must strive to embed innovative and creative technologies that are changing the way of assessment, feedback and content delivery. Discussion forums on “WhatsApp” of smart cellular phones are one practical manner in which students and tutors can discuss course related issues and support each other academically. This could help students to spend less time achieving learning goals on one hand and will make the learning experience more interactive and effective on the other hand.
6.4.2.6 Recommendation 11
ODL institutions should involve ODL students in decision-making about assessment/feedback policy and practice. This is to ensure that students are kept informed or engaged in consultations regarding assessment policy decisions of the institution. One way to foster engagement is to devise a student charter on assessment feedback. A student charter will also address frequent mismatch between tutors’ expectations of the purpose and usefulness of feedback and those of the students could be eradicated by such a charter. There is no student charter at UNAM/CES. Devising a student charter is an attempt to effect dialogue about feedback and how to use it so that students become aware of the importance of using feedback to improve their learning. This will also provide some insight into how to improve feedback and assessment practices.
6.5.2.7 Recommendation 12
As a strategy to ensure that ODL students get engaged with the given feedback, I propose the following action plan for the students. This could be made part of the assignment paper for the students’ use after receiving the marked assignments. What
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is crucial is that the information provided is taken up by the students, acted upon and leads to some desirable changes.
Table 6.1: Feedback action plan Date:
Course:
Mark or Grade What does this mean?
Most significant
comments
How to improve What are the learning points?
If students make an effort to work on this action plan, it would help in developing their capacity to calibrate their own judgments and appreciate qualities of their own work. The students should look carefully at the comments and work out feedback action plans for each course. It is advisable for the students, where possible, to compare comments received with those received by fellow students. This will give some more information about the standard of own work.
6.4.2.8 Recommendation 13
Feedback should be more dialogical and ongoing, meaning that during contact sessions, a time-slot be devoted on discussions, clarification and negotiation between students and tutors with the aim to equip students with a better appreciation of what is expected of them in the process of writing assignments.
6.4.2.9 Recommendation 14
As the tutors are assessing coursework of the students, they must promote dialogue and conversation around the goals of the assessment task. They must also emphasise the instructional aspects of feedback and not only the correctional dimensions. The
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dialogical feedback is seen as an essential component of assessment interaction where the intention is to support learning.
6.4.3 Operational level
Before any change can happen with regards to assessment, strategic imperatives of the institution must be taken into account. The ODL programmes must be designed so that the volume of assessment is manageable and devise and apply workload models that ensure that the strategies adopted to optimise feedback are sustainable. For every course offered via ODL mode, assessment expectations, standards and marking criteria must be clearly communicated via assignment briefs to the students.
6.4.3.1 Recommendation 15
Considered efforts should be made to ensure that appropriate feedback is provided by the tutors on assessed work in a way that promotes learning and facilitates improvement. As such, the focus of tutoring in ODL must also promote learning. Tutors should not just provide feedback simply as a requirement. They must increase the responsibility of students towards learning and thus must provide feedback in such a way to learning forward and create structures for students to act on it. There is no point in giving feedback, in whatever form, without ensuring whether it is effective or meaningful for the students.
6.4.3.2 Recommendation 16
In an ODL system everything should to be planned previously, and anticipated difficulties should be identified in advance. Although the success of an ODL programme is severely dependent on the student approach and commitment, the responsibility of the academic staff cannot be weakened.
182 6.4.3.3 Recommendation 17
ODL institutions must create a website, a site that supports the electronic submission of assignments and allows staff to upload students’ feedback and marks, only for the ODL students. This could be another way to counteract delay in provision of feedback.
6.4.3.4 Recommendation 18
ODL institutions must ensure that all the different systems for ODL delivery are in place and functioning. This is to counteract the interplay of many other factors that have a direct or indirect influence on the assessment practices. Dual mode universities must plan strategically on how to implement an ODL unit at an existing university as it has got its own dynamics which must be taken into consideration. The challenges of CES as the ODL at UNAM, dictates that for education institutions moving towards ODL, to adopt a singular vision, policies, and procedures for ODL implementation. To this end, it is recommended that academic planners of ODL think about the reasons for offering courses via ODL and whether it is possible to offer the course via ODL.
6.4.3.5 Recommendation 19
As already hinted in section 6.4.2.6, it is strongly recommended that ODL institutions develop student charters through negotiation between university staff and officers of the students’ representative body. Such charters must contain a simple and clear outline of key issues regarding feedback. It should align with the institutional assessment and feedback policies and codes of practice, and highlight key aspects felt by students to be priority issues. The content must reflect a balanced view of staff and student responsibilities with respect to feedback. It must also reflect what students can expect from their tutors and what they themselves should do. In conjunction with above, a sustained systematic approach to assessment must be maintained and therefore monitoring, analysing and improving student learning at ongoing basis is crucial.
183 6.4.3.6 Recommendation 20
There should be concrete mechanisms in which tutors and students should be encouraged to view written feedback as an integral part of practice-based and embed situated approach to develop academic literacies in ODL.
6.4.3.7 Recommendation 21
Students should use self-regulation as the process to monitor and control their own learning. By self-regulating the students will seek, accept and act on the feedback information or not. As ODL students, they have to create internal routines that include figuring out when they need information, assessment or suggestions, and embark upon strategies for getting the feedback from tutors.
Table 6.2: Proposed template for assignment cover Stage 1
Major issue Minor issue
1. Referencing style 2.
3. 4.
1. Some accents missing 2.
3. 4.
Stage 2
Issue Tutor advice Action to be taken by student Referencing style referring Incorporate citations correctly using Harvard style
Review guidelines on referencing style;
See examples in http:
www.rtw/sst/document_uploads/3456.pdf
I devised the above template which could be part of the assignments for the use of the tutor-markers. I recommend that this template be made part of the assignment book for tutor markers to provide comments on academic tasks. This template is in response
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to the expressions from the tutors for non-engagement of students with the given feedback. It is aimed at creating conditions for students to act on feedback.
However, there could be number of other strategies that could be used to maximise student engagement with the assessment feedback. One such strategy is to design assessments in such a way that students can see the direct benefits of attending to feedback advice.