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=Students are provided with feedback which reinforces learning. =

Evidence
Optimal feedback looks for balance between student needs and teaching management (Dennen, 2005), and must enhance understanding rather than just indicating correctness (Garrison, 1989)

Feedback involves complex effects including: ‘candlepower’ (Hudson, 2002), which characterises the subtle intimacy that arises in online dialogue and concerns effects of critical dialogue; and ‘feedback specificity’. Although more specific feedback benefits learning responses in those who perform well, it is detrimental to learning responses in those who perform poorly (Goodman and Wood, 2004). So feedback must be tailored to the individual student.

The impact of feedback specificity on learning opportunities is discussed by Goodman and Wood (2004), who report that although specificity can benefit immediate performance, it can also undermine learning related to independent performance. Their findings indicate that the effects of feedback on learning are contextual and conditional. For example, whereas more specific feedback benefits learning responses in those who perform well, it is detrimental to learning responses in those who perform poorly. They conclude that ‘those who receive feedback of varying specificity learn different things, through different means. Simple notions about feedback being beneficial or detrimental to learning need to be augmented by more complex models’ that recognise different task aspects.

Resources
Evidence of capability in this practice is seen through the use of informal feedback through various communication channels complemented by formal assessment feedback processes such as marking rubrics.

The JISC provides a summary of evidence for good practice in marking and providing feedback. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/effective-use-of-VLEs/e-assessment/assess-feedback

There is also a guide produced by the Student Enhanced Learning through Effective Feedback project: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id353_senlef_guide.pdf

One method of feedback that is often overlooked is self-assessment. Ehlers (2009) underscores the importance of guided self-assessment in impacting on student performance. Self-assessment can be defined as students judging the quality of their work based on evidence and explicit criteria.