Supporting assessment and feedback practice with technology: a view of the UK landscape

Abstract

Assessment and feedback lies at the heart of the learning experience, and forms a significant part of both academic and administrative workload. In the UK however it remains the single biggest source of student dissatisfaction with the higher education experience. Most providers of higher education are seeking to enhance their approaches to assessment and feedback to better meet learner needs and expectations and are having to do so in the face of increasing resource constraints. The Jisc Assessment and Feedback programme (Sept 2011-Aug 2014) is supporting large-scale changes in assessment and feedback practice, supported by technology, with the aim of enhancing the learning and teaching process and delivering efficiencies and quality improvements.
This paper looks at some of the emerging outcomes of this work. It reviews the assessment and feedback landscape at the start of the programme, highlights some of the most significant issues and looks at the ways in which technology is being applied to enhance practice in each of these areas. In particular the paper highlights some open source tools and other resources that are readily available for use by other EUNIS members.