1. Chrissi Nerantzi
Academic Developer
Manchester
Metropolitan
University, UK
@chrissinerantzi
ILTA141
Introduction to Learning, Teaching and Assessment
Haleh Moravej
Senior Lecturer in
Nutrition Science
Manchester
Metropolitan
University, UK
@halehmoravej
Chrissi Nerantzi
Academic Developer
Manchester
Metropolitan
University, UK
@chrissinerantzi
source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Moofushi_Kandu_fish.jpg

2. #ILTA141
Assessment and feedback
•Purposes and principles of assessment, including the MMU regulatory framework
•Practical marking activity inc. writing feedback
•Using assessment and related feedback to develop practice

3. 3
Why do students
need to be assessed?
Why do students
want feedback? Ask
them!
Task: Ask students, capture their responses and come back in 5 minutes

4. PBL
Grown since 1960s pioneered at McMaster
University
http://www.mcmaster.ca/home.cfm
with medical students (Howard Barrows)
Strong evidence that it works well!!!
Whole university approach: Maastricht University
http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/AboutUM.htm
http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/Education/EducationalProfile/Probl
emBasedLearning.htm
4

5. moving away from… towards…
Traditional
lecture
Small group
learning
Subject
based
Problem
based
Competitive
learning
Co-
operative
earning
Can be used:
•Face-to-face
•Blended
•Fully online
5

6. Why PBL?
• Developing ‘skills’ and subject specific
reasoning skills
• Learning takes place in ‘context’ for students
• Self-directed learning is promoted
Savin-Baden (1996)
source: Busfield, J & Peijs, T (2003) Learning Materials in a Problem
Based Course 6

7. PBL, a curriculum design approach
• Problems embedded in scenarios
• Students discover problems
• Learner ownership
• In small groups (PBL tutorials)
• Search for solutions
• PBL tutor
content
ill-structured
scenarios/triggers
threshold
concepts
7

8. problems as triggers
• Authentic, genuinely
problematic
• Trigger learning
• Media
8

9. Challenges
• Resource intensive
• Stressful for staff and students
• Time intensive (Des Marchais, 1993)
• Covering less curriculum content 80%
(Albanese and Mitchell, 1993)
• Scenarios too ill-structured: students
disorientated (McLoughlin & Oliver, online)
9

10. process: the FISh model (Nerantzi & Uhlin, 2012)
stage 1: Focus
stage 2: Investigate
stage 3 : Share
10

11. FISh (Nerantzi & Uhlin, 2012)
Step 1: Focus
What do we see?
How do we understand what we see?
What do we need to find out more about?
Specify learning issues/intended learning outcomes!
Step 2: Investigate
How and where are we/am I going to find answers?
Who will do what and by when?
What main findings and solutions do we/I propose?
Step 3: Share
How are we going to present our findings within the group?
What do we want to share with the FDOL community?
How can we provide feedback to another group?
What reflections do I have about my learning and our group work?
11

12. Roles
I facilitateteam meetings/tutorials,
stimulatedebate
make sure that everybody is
participatingand that
the PBL process is used.
I also co-ordinate learning and tasks
(who does what and by when)
I record what is
said/agreedduring
meetings,
record any issues
summariseand
synthesise
I share/read the
problem
scenario,
draw attention to
key elements of
the scenario
I keep track of time
during
meetings/tutorials,
remindteam
membershow much
time is left
I facilitatethe PBL
process and
reflection,ask open
questions. I need to
rememberto step
back and not
lecture!

13. (part 1) “Just finished marking 150 essays, the one and only assignment for this challenging module. Can’t
understand why students don’t do well! Is one essay too much? I have been using this essay title for the last 10
years – I love it! – and students just don’t seem to engage with it, not even the brighter ones, which is really
strange!
I have given the students an extensive reading list and during the lectures I always tell them that they can ask me
if they don’t understand something. Not sure what I am doing wrong… Students have never complained about
anything and the module evaluation is always positive.
They had a whole month to write the essay… but I know that many just do it a few days before the handing in
date. At least they hand it in I guess.
(part 2) Writing feedback is hard work too! I don’t know these people. I see them 2h a week over 10 weeks and
there are 150 of them in the lecture theatre, well they are usually not all there. I find it really time consuming to
write feedback on their assignments. I tend to write loads and tell them what they did wrong. That should be
useful for them! But I am actually not sure if they read it. Most of them just see the mark and don’t bother
collecting the feedback. Am I wasting my time?”
Please investigate the above carefully. Identify possible problems, then define your learning outcomes. Carry out
research to resolve the issues identified. You will be asked to present your findings to another group and engage
in a conversation about these.
Please work together and apply the Mills 5-stage PBL model in your investigation. Please remember that you will
be working together. Co-ordinate team activities and assign roles, such as chair, reader, scribe and timekeeper.
A PBL facilitator will help you to get started. Please also access the online PBL resources to familiarise yourself
further with PBL. Ask your facilitator if you are unsure about something.
You are welcome to use some of the resources made available and identify further ones for your research.
13

14. critique
“Solange arrives at her English university. She is a keen student and wants to do well.
After a few weeks, she is asked to write an assignment. When she sits at her
computer, she finds that she can only think of the complex ideas she has grappled
with on the course in her mother tongue, which is not English. It is an enormous strain
to write these ideas and she cannot think directly in English. She has to translate her
thoughts one by one. When she gets the essay back, she is extremely disappointed
with her mark. She is used to excellent results. Some of the feedback relates to her
use of English and is very discouraging. Her tutor has written:
‘There are hints of some interesting ideas in this essay but they are often difficult to
understand because you do not express them clearly. Please check your English
carefully before you hand in your work There are too many errors here.’” (Duhs, 2010,
6)
Discuss the feedback. Try to redraft it so that it feeds forward
and helps Solange to feel less apprehensive about her next essay.

15. references
Albanese M A & Mitchell S (1993) Problem-based learning: a review of literature on its outcomes and implementation issues.
Acad Med, pp. 68: 52-81.
Barrows, H S (2000) Problem-based learning applied to medical education, Southern Illinois School of Medicine: Illinois
Des Marchais, J E (1993) A student-centred, problem-based curriculum: 5 years' experience. Can Med Assoc J, pp. 1567-1572.
McLoughlin, M & Darvill, A (2007) Peeling back the layers of learning: A classroom model for problem-based learning, in: Nurse
Education Today , 27, pp. 271-277.
McLoughlin, C & Oliver, R (online) Problem-based learning (PBL):Developing learning capability through the WWW, available at
http://elrond.scam.ecu.edu.au/oliver/docs/99/ODLAA.pdf [accessed 11 February 2011]
Mills, D (2006) Problem-based learning: An overview, available at
http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/resources/project_reports/ShowOverview.asp?id=4 [accessed 5 March 2010]
Savin-Baden, M, (1996) Problem-based learning: a catalyst for enabling and disablling disjunction prompting transitions in learner
stances? Ph D thesis University of London. Institute of Education
Woods, D R (1994) How to Gain the Most from PBL, Hamilton: McMaster University
15