Title: Reducing staff workload and improving student summative and formative feedback through automation: squaring the circle

Authors: John Biggam

Addresses: Department of Management, Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, Scotland, UK

Abstract: It is widely recognised that providing consistent, meaningful feedback to students on assessment performance is not a simple task, particularly where a module is delivered by a team of staff. Typical student complaints about assessment feedback include: inconsistency of comment between lecturers; illegible handwriting; difficulty in relating feedback to assessment criteria; vague remarks. For staff themselves, there is the not insubstantial problem that written comments, to be of any benefit to students, are immensely time-consuming. This paper illustrates, through a case study, the enormous benefits to staff and students of using an Automated Assessment Feedback (AAF) system.

Keywords: AAF; automated assessment feedback; summative assessment; formative assessment; staff workload; student feedback; universities; higher education; performance assessment; student performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2010.033322

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2010 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.276 - 287

Published online: 24 May 2010 *

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