What Makes Good Feedback

Informal feedback is made up of speech, gestures and tone of voice. It is often provided during learning and encourages interaction with the student.

Formal feedback is most often written and provided to the student without the lecturer being present, it is easier for the student to misunderstand or misinterpret as they don't have the ability to ask questions of the person providing the feedback.

Students can give feedback to themselves or each other, providing they learn how to do this effectively. This practice not only increases their understanding of assessment criteria but also empowers students to take ownership of their learning process. Developing these skills enhances their ability to interpret and act on written feedback, making them more independent and reflective learners.

See also: Peer Assessment

Generic and targeted feedback can be provided to students in a variety of ways via ReCap Personal Capture, Canvas, Turnitin Feedback Studio​ and peer assessment exercises.

Feedback may be provided to the whole cohort – especially before students submit assignments. This helps to highlight common mistakes and misconceptions and encourages students to review their work.

Feedback during learning should consist of praise and encouragement, but to be effective educators should pose questions that enable students to consider the choices they have made and guide them towards an appropriate response.

Feedback after learning encourages students to consider how they reached their results or conclusions. It is an opportunity to consider what paths others took to get to the same or different ends and identify any consensus in approach and conclusions. It can also highlight  common pitfalls in learning and surface good practice that supports students with future work.

You can help students to engage with feedback by signposting the different ways they will receive it on your module. You can do this in person at the start of your module and provide a summary on Canvas. For example, you could specify:

• How they will receive feedback: format; individual or group level; which system and where they will find it within that system.
• When they will receive feedback. Give a clear date for when students should expect to receive their feedback. If for any reason it is delayed, communicate this and notify them of the new date.
• Why it is important to engage with feedback. Often students do not engage in end-of-module feedback as they fail see the potential connections with future modules. Make it clear how feedback will support their future work.

Here are a few ideas for preparing your students for feedback: 

• Create a student guide for your course containing advice and tips on how to make good use of feedback.
• Use annotated examples of work with feedback comments in class and ask students to suggest actions that could be taken to respond. 
• Give students their own work or example assignments to mark and annotate against the criteria.

Do not assume students know where to find and retrieve their feedback and marks. In their first year they will need to be shown how to make use of marking tools and interpret feedback that has been given via rubrics.

Work with colleagues on your programme team to agree common tools and approaches to feedback so that students have a consistent experience. For example, agree a standard layout for the feedback or agree common phrases to use such as “for future work”.  

Students may struggle to follow the assessment criteria and academic language so take time to communicate your expectations. Make sure your students know why they are getting feedback and how their learning can be improved through reflection. 

The Academic Skills Kit contains useful resources to share with your students:

• Accessing your feedback in Canvas
• Understanding and interpreting your feedback. You can directly include some of the materials in your canvas course (e.g. the video ‘Building on your assessment feedback’)

The Get Ready to Study collection for new students includes a section on Responding to feedback to your writing

• Receiving feedback on your work. An interactive resource providing students with advice on how to process receiving feedback, written in collaboration with Student Wellbeing.
• Making the most of your feedback - A short video (2:40 min) featuring current Newcastle students who share how they use feedback to improve their work.

While we cannot control how students interpret feedback, we must remain mindful of challenges that may be linked to disability—such as difficulties with spelling and grammar. Our approach to feedback should:

• be sensitive to the underlying causes of errors
• offer constructive insights into strengths and areas for improvement
• highlight available support for academic and literacy development
• clarify the purpose and value of feedback
• encourage self-reflection and engagement with development opportunities

Certain groups of students may prefer to receive feedback in particular formats. For example:  

• Students with dyslexia may prefer audio feedback over written as it may take them less time to listen and understand feedback if they experience word decoding issues and have slower reading speeds.
• Audio feedback may also be applicable for students whose time is impacted in other ways e.g. those with caring responsibilities, commuter students or students who may experience fatigue due to long term health or mental health conditions. 
• A student with an Autism Spectrum Condition will value clear, unambiguous feedback that is plainly stated and placed next to the text it relates to. 

Since no single type of feedback works for every student, the key is to balance your understanding of your student cohort with the feedback methods and tools available. This will help you choose the most effective approaches to ensure accessibility and engagement.

Useful resources:

• Supportive practice tool – inclusive practices to support common difficulties
• Information on reasonable adjustments to support students

The Student Health and Wellbeing Service or your School’s Student Wellbeing Adviser (SWA) can provide detailed advice.