All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Elaine Ball |
|---|---|
| Email: | e.ball1@salford.ac.uk |
| Institution: | Salford University |
The University of Salford School of Nursing's policy on the provision of feedback on assessed work now included student annotation of scripts.This is a change to the marking practices of School staff. I would like to share with the conference the results so far of a study exploring student and staff views of this change to the marking process.
The Quality Assurance Agency's Code of Practice for "Assessment of Students," Precept 12 (2001) on "feedback to students on performance" states that institutions should "ensure that appropriate feedback is provided to students on assessed work in a way that promotes learning and facilitates improvement." Feedback is about playing-back to the student their understanding of a topic as it was encapsulated on paper - it is an agreed assessment process designed to measure progress, correct errors, and improve performance (Martens & Dochy 1997).
The revival of annotation is currently making huge strides due to web based or electronic learning. The internet and hardware applications such as hypertext mean that many annotation technologies have been developed to facilitate exchanges between long-distance collaborators (Wolfe & Nuewirth). Indeed, not since medieval time has the instrument of marginalia (writing in the margins) been so keenly utilised (Wolfe & Nuewirth). Medieval writing reveals that the reader's interaction with the text was central to keeping the discourse topical (Wolfe & Nuewirth). Multiple readers all had access to the same copy and the exchange and discussion of annotation was as important as the primary text. Although print technologies contributed to the decline of annotations as critical forums, digital technologies promise to revive these practices and create new ones.
Thus, exposing the student to a variation of these contemporary practices within the University is in keeping with current learning strategies. However, teaching staff within the School appear to find the influence of multiple readers a point of contention when marking previously annotated essays. Staff have reported that when they mark an annotated text, their objectivity may be influenced.
This study explores the views of both academics and students' perception of annotation of student essays. it takes a qualitative and quantitative mixed methods approach and the paper would be the early evaluations of the results.