NUS Journal

NUS have produced a journal about academic issues - issue 1 is out now. A copy can be found here.

This first ever edition concentrates on a subject dear to my heart - and to many others - FEEDBACK.

NUS have picked up on the poor results from the National Student Survey regarding feedback on assessed work.

They have published 10 principles of good practice regarding feedback:
1. should be for learning, not just of learning.
2. should be a continuous process
3. should be timely
4. should relate to clear criteria
5. should be constructive
6. should be legible and clear
7. should be provided on exams
8. should include self assessment and peer to peer assessment
9. should be accessible to all students
10. should be flexible and suited to students needs

Many of these principles are those which we should abide by, and many are picked up the University's new draft assessment policy. The issue regarding feedback on exams in interesting - this is not current policy for the University, though I know it has been discussed at our Learning Development Team. As soon as some universities start to provide this, then you can be sure that others will have to follow.

The document also contains interesting case studies - such as Northumbria where the turnaround time for providing feedback was reduced to 21 days. There is also an article by David Nicol of Strathclyde, whose REAP project has been reported previously in these pages.