Feedback has long been identified as a problem by staff and students alike. While students often complain that they are not getting enough detailed feedback that is relevant to future work, staff feel they are investing a lot of time and work into providing feedback that is not collected or not acted upon. Increasingly, the use of audio feedback is seen as a means to tackle some of these problems.

1. Audio feedback – better feedback?*
Susanne Voelkel & Luciane V. Mello
School of Life Sciences
*funded by the eLearing Steering Group, UoL

2. “Feedback is one of the most
powerful influences on learning
and achievement”*
* Hattie & Timperley, 2007

3. Effective feedback answers 3 questions*:
• Where am I going?
– (the goals)
• How am I going?
– “feed-back”
• Where to next?
– “feed- forward”
* Hattie & Timperley, 2007

4. Good quality feedback – students’ view*
• Detailed information on how to improve
• Applicable to future work
• Personal
• Timely
* Student focus group, School of Life Sciences

5. But…. all is not well!

8. UoL

9. Can audio feedback help us provide
better feedback?

10. Research questions
• Will audio feedback
– Work?
– Save staff time?
– Increase student satisfaction?
– Help students learn better?

11. Research design
• Two case studies
– Undergraduate level
– Postgraduate level

12. 1. The undergraduate level project
• Year 3, class size 70
• Low stake (10%) essay, exam conditions
(handwritten)
• Class split randomly in half
– 50% written feedback (comments)
– 50% audio feedback (bullet points on script)
• Evaluation

13. 2. The postgraduate level project
• M-level module
• Class size 14
• Group work assessment
– Individual component
– Purely formative
• All students receive audio feedback only
• Evaluation

14. Methods
• Recording the feedback
– Mobile digital voice recorder
– Audio files (mp3 format)
– Measure time (UG)
• Dissemination
– By email
• Listening to the feedback
– Mp3 player or computer

15. Evaluation
• Questionnaire
– Response rate
• 44% undergraduate
• 93% postgraduate
• Interviews (10, UG)
• Marks (UG)

16. Did it work? The technical side.
• No problems from staff or student side

17. Did audio feedback save staff time?
Time (min) Standard N
deviation
Audio 16 +8 31
feedback
Written 11 +3 31
feedback
Significant difference (p=0.002)

18. Did audio feedback increase student
satisfaction?

19. After reading/ listening to my
feedback, I fully understand my mark
Postgrad
audio agree
neither
Under- disagree
graduates
written
0 20 40 60 80 100

20. I understand what I need to do to get a
better mark in the future
Postgrad
audio agree
neither
Under- disagree
graduates
written
0 20 40 60 80 100

21. The amount of feedback I got was
Postgrad
definitely not
enough
not really enough
audio
just right
Under-
graduates
written too much
0 20 40 60 80 100

22. The feedback I got was detailed
enough
Postgrad
audio agree
neither
Under- disagree
graduates
written
0 20 40 60 80 100

23. My feedback was clear
Postgrad
audio agree
neither
Under- disagree
graduates
written
0 20 40 60 80 100

24. Written comments on audio feedback
Undergraduates
“It (the audio feedback) was very personal, I
knew exactly what I had to do to make my
mark better”
“you get a lot more honest opinion about (your
work) and a lot more information I think on how
to improve”
“…written feedback means that you have it there just
to look at all the time and it’s a bit harder to go back
and look at the audio feedback”

25. Written comments on audio feedback
Postgraduates
“Audio FB was very useful, I strongly feel more
lecturers should adopt it as part of their
teaching methods”
“Audio FB was fantastic and more detailed than
just writing a few lines in text format”

26. Effects on student learning?
F
80 e
e
70
d
60
b
a
Average mark (%)
50 c
k
audio
40
written
30
20
10
0
Formative Summative

27. Research questions – the answers
• Will audio feedback
– Work? yes
– Save staff time? no
– Increase student satisfaction? yes
– Help students learn better? perhaps

28. Thank you
svoelkel@liv.ac.uk