Feedback on student work

Assessment feedback is a crucial part of your learning experience at the University of Stirling. This guide explains what assessment feedback is, what you can expect from it, your responsibilities and sources of support.

Feedback is guidance that highlights strengths and weaknesses in your work, indicating how to improve in the future. Feedback can be informal or formal, individual or group-based, and can come from various sources, including peers, teaching staff, and industry professionals.

Forms of feedback include:

• Written or oral feedback on formal assessments on Canvas or other platforms.
• Peer feedback.
• Outcomes of practice assessments, quizzes, and polls in class.
• Discussions with teaching staff, mentors, and other students.
• Generic class feedback.
• Feedback from proofreaders.
• Comparison to exemplars.
• Feedback from placement providers or industry professionals.

Assessment feedback should be:

• Constructive and Supportive: Motivating, build confidence, and support reflection.
• Clear and Accessible: Easy to understand, without jargon, and in a format and location that is accessible.
• Timely: Provided when it can be used to improve within the module and across the programme.
• Goal-referenced: Indicating performance against assessment criteria and future improvement steps.
• A Dialogue: Prompting discussion and reflection with staff and others.

During your programme you’ll receive:

• Clear information: When you’ll get assessment feedback, what form that will take and how to access it.
• Consistent Feedback: Feedback on all coursework that counts towards your grade and at least class-level feedback on exams.
• Timely feedback: Returned:
  • Coursework: Within 15 working days of the relevant submission date* for coursework (excluding weekends and University holidays) and
  • Exams and dissertations: After the relevant module board for examinations and dissertations and independent study projects.

* If you submit work late, then staff are not obliged to provide assessment feedback.

If there is a delay in returning assessment feedback to you, the faculty will contact you to explain the situation and provide a new return date.

During your programme you’ll be guided to become confident in interpreting and using assessment feedback to improve your work in the future. You’ll also get the chance to give others assessment feedback, which is an important skill to develop.

It’s your assessment feedback and it’s so important to help you learn, so use it wisely:

• Read: Access and use your assessment feedback to improve future work.
• Reflect: What went well, what can you do to improve next time?
• Look for positives: Celebrate your strengths, don’t always focus on the negatives.
• Discuss: Discuss your feedback with staff and other students to help you understand it more deeply and put it into context.