BACKGROUND
For the Marketing Management Unit, which is delivered for Y1 BSc & MSc, students are assessed holistically through a 2000-word report on a brand of their choice, for which they are required to research and analyse the brand case and generate an appropriate marketing campaign proposal for it.
A formative assessment takes place halfway through the unit contents; for this, I designed a tutor and peer’s feedback activity, thought to help each student assess their own progress and guide their ongoing work towards submission.
EVALUATION
For this formative assessment, students are required to generate a creative brief, which they need to bring prepared in the form of a poster (one-pager document) and upload at the beginning of the session to a Padlet board. In groups, they will then take turns to “chair” a creative briefing meeting for 6-7 minutes, where they will talk their teams through their document and explain their brand case and initial campaign idea (if they have it already). This will be followed by a peer’s feedback exercise, which will be supported by some peer and tutor feedback in writing via Padlet (as comments, on their posts).
Although the brief for this exercise provided clear instructions on what was to be submitted and what would happen in the session, students who attended expressed that they found it much easier and felt more comfortable that they had anticipated.
On the day, I let them choose their groups, so they could present and exchange feedback with the peers they felt most comfortable with, which helped taking the pressure off the presentation part. Before we started with the “creative brief meetings”, I delivered a brief recap on what the required document was: what a creative brief is in real life and how it is used along with the creative brief meeting in the industry. I exemplified some questions in response to a standard creative briefing, and gave a specific structure for providing feedback: (1) highlight one or two things the presenter did well; (2) a question about something you think needs clarification or further detail; and (3) highlight one thing that could be improved, and perhaps provide a suggestion for how this might be achieved in practice. This was well received, as it solved uncertainty and gave a clear, unified approach for feedback exchanged. Students were really engaged and provided insightful, constructive feedback to one another. I eventually supported some of the conversations, offering guidance and clarifying potential action points.
This experience corroborates my views of on peer’s feedback being a great approach for formatives, as they seem to offer a good scenario for promoting active learning and encouraging responsibility and ownership (Sadler, 1989). It allows students to receive feedback from multiple perspectives, promotes critical thinking and reflection, and fosters a sense of responsibility for one’s own learning (Falchikov, 2005). This one in particular offered them the opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and build their communication skills in preparation for real-world collaboration.
While the exercise worked well, and students who undertook it expressed that they had found it helpful and inspiring, attendance rate for the session was below the average number, with some regular students absent from it. Retrospectively, I interpret this to be a consequence from a general fear to public speaking in front of peers, as well as the lack of confidence in providing –and maybe also receiving- feedback to peers.
MOVING FORWARD
I am keen to develop this approach further, as I think it was a good formative exercise overall. For future sessions, I am currently exploring various streams for improvement.
Firstly, the chance of providing full detail and instructions on not just what is required and what will happen on the session, but most importantly how it will happen; this is, how they will be grouped up, what sort of feedback they will be exchanging and how, etc. I believe removing this uncertainty will encourage the regular attendants to stay engaged and see the value of the exercise.
Secondly, I appreciate that a number of students might not feel comfortable presenting or exchanging feedback directly. I am looking into further ways to make this experience as flexible as possible, without compromising the usefulness of the process and outcomes. Whether that is offering the option of presenting in pairs, or exchanging the document with another peer for review, doing it via video recording, etc.
Lastly, I am considering alternative ways of introducing peer feedback to students and considering more open approaches – i.e. asking them to collaboratively discuss and agree on the desire feedback structure to follow or asking for their approval or suggestions to the proposed structure before the exercise. This is inspired by Falchikov’s (2005) contribution to the concept of feedback literacy, which involves helping students develop the skills to give, receive, and use feedback effectively. She suggests that teaching students how to interpret and act upon feedback can enhance their learning outcomes and contribute to their overall academic success, so raising the question of “what sort of feedback would you find useful” can be a good starting point for reflection.
Drawing also on Topping’s ideas (1998), the focus of my next steps is to stress to students the value of formative assessments and the enriched opportunity by the additional peer’s feedback, to help enhance self-reflection, but also to encourage the development of a supportive learning community.
REFERENCES
Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M., & Lam, J. (2011). Developing sustainable feedback practices. Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.
Falchikov, N. (2005). Improving assessment through student involvement: Practical solutions for aiding learning in higher and further education. Routledge Falmer.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.
Nicol, D., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199-218.
Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18(2), 119-144.
Topping, K. (1998). Peer assessment between students in colleges and universities. Review of Educational Research.