digital feedback

ABSTRACT

Current educational research demonstrates the importance of equipping students to be active participants in their own learning. However, more work is needed to provide students with the metacognitive skills necessary to engage in Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). Feedback is a crucial component of the learning process and can be used by students to develop these skills but remains a source of dissatisfaction for students and educators. We contend that this is a result of a gap in students’ understanding of the feedback process and the lack of dialogue between students and educators. This paper presents a methodology to conduct a feedback workshop as a means to  improve the feedback experience while equipping students with the metacognitive skills needed  to facilitate SRL. The methodology was evaluated in four workshops conducted with students from  engineering and business at a university in the United Kingdom. In each workshop (excluding the  pilot) students were requested to complete pre and post-workshop questionnaires and there was  also opportunity for group discussion and reflection. Results demonstrate the potential benefits  of such workshops in deepening the student understanding of the process and use of feedback.