Study Success at Sussex (S3)
The purpose of feedback at university
Feedback is an essential part of your learning at university and should help you to understand the areas in which you are doing well and what you can do to improve and progress.
Good feedback:
- Helps you to assess your own learning and reflect on your development
- Allows you to discuss your learning with your tutors
- Helps you to understand what is expected of you and what good performance is
- Gives you the opportunity to progress
- Provides you with information about your learning
- Motivates you and encourages you to think positively about your learning
- Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching
Adapted from Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, Seven principles of feedback [PDF 30KB].
Chloe and Donna
Second year Geography
View Chloe and Donna's student perspective
Transcript
Donna: Usually we'll get our essays back, a marked copy, so we can read through what the lecturer has written and how they've gone through it and we'll also get feedback online so you can look at both of them. It's up to you what option you look at.
Chloe: The feedback online, I'm not sure if they do it before the end of the year, I know definitely at the end of the year they'll put a graph up from your courses and the graph will show you the average grade, the highest grade, the lowest grade and your grade and only you can access it, no one else can see your grade but it means you can chart your progress and work out if you're at the standard you want to be at.
Donna: You can see what subjects can be pulling you down as well, so you can tell exactly what you need to improve on.
Tayo Oladele
Second year Electrical and electronic engineering
View Tayo's student perspective
Transcript
You get feedback every week because during the lecture sessions they give you a worksheet and you have to take it home and do it on your own and if you need help you go to the workshop and ask the PhD student - they will help you out. Apart from that, you can just go up to your lecturers and just talk to them about what you don't really understand and what you're doing wrong.
What feedback is not about
- Feedback is not a justification for your mark. For some pieces of work you will receive a grade and feedback comments. The comments are not a justification for your mark. Your mark will reflect your achievement for that particular piece of work, whilst the feedback can provide you with much more, including suggestions to consider for your next piece of work.
- Feedback does not comment on every aspect of your assessment. In providing feedback your tutors will select and comment on the most important areas that you've done well at and where you can improve (e.g. if it doesn't mention spelling mistakes that's not to say that you didn't make any or if it doesn't mention that you showed a good understanding of a primary text - that is not to say that you didn't demonstrate this). Tutor's carefully select their feedback in order to best help your learning.
- Feedback is not the end of a process. Often you will receive feedback some time after completing a piece of work, when you may be more focussed on your next assignment. However, good feedback at university is designed to contribute to your ongoing development and you should think about how you can make best use of feedback on previous work to help you improve the next piece.