Gerry Gallagher

This paper reports on a baseline review of Assessment Feedback practices at four Irish third level institutions as part of the Supporting Transition: Enhancing (Assessment) Feedback in First Year Using Digital Technologies project, funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. The review of current practice, coupled with a related literature review, focuses on the first year experience of assessment feedback for staff and students, with a particular emphasis on the use of digital technologies.This study is particularly timely in the Irish context given our strategic focus on improving the transition to Higher Education and the first year experience (Hunt, 2011). Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement and is particularly important in supporting the transition to Higher Education (Nicol 2009). While evidence shows that regular and frequent formative feedback in first year is associated with student success (Tinto, 2005,...

As the number of learning and teaching continuing professional development (CPD) courses increases in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), so too does the accompanying number of learning innovations being implemented and evaluated.  The evaluation process requires valid and reliable data collection and analysis procedures to be established.  In many cases, qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups and free-text responses are employed for this purpose.  These methods generate large volumes of data, which must be coded and analysed in a thorough and professional manner.  While commercial software packages can assist in this analysis, in a difficult economic climate, the cost of campus-wide licenses for such can be quite prohibitive.  In a recent publication aimed at enhancing the learning environment in practical sessions, Bree et al. (2014) implemented a simple, cost-effective technology-based analysis of captured focus group data with a widely used software suite.  This ...

The Y1Feedback Project is a multi-institutional learning and teaching enhancement project that aims to support the transition to Higher Education by using digital technologies to enhance feedback in the first year. The project is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in HE under the 2014 Enhancement fund. This paper outlines the project development and progress, with particular focus on identification of the feedback approaches that we are developing case studies of as part of this initiative. Although the project is not complete, the outcome of initial evaluations is reported and we reflect on the process and challenges encountered.

The Irish Higher Education sector has experienced a variety of key policy developments in the recent past. The publication of a ‘National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030’ was followed by the establishment of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (NFETL) and the subsequent publication of ‘A Roadmap for Enhancement in a Digital World’ 2015–2017. In tandem, the National Forum devised the first national enhancement theme ‘Teaching for Transition’ and more recently ‘Assessment for, as and of Learning’ with research funding allocated. This paper will discuss two current national educational research projects that focus on the development of digital pedagogy. The first focuses on supporting transition through enhancing feedback in first year using digital technologies. Y1Feedback is a two-year (2015–2017) multi-institutional change project involving two universities and two institutes of technology (IoTs). Informed by both an analysis of current assessment a...

The What Works and Why project is dedicated to building digital literacy and engagement for staff and students by addressing the question, ‘What works and why?’ It is clear that digital technologies offer great potential in terms of enhancing learning and teaching across all education sectors but the professional development of teachers is crucial to harnessing this potential. In this collection, educators from higher education, further education, adult education and post-primary education answer the question ‘What works and why?’ by sharing their experiences of using technology to enhance their students’ learning and support digital literacy.

Constructive Alignment is an approach to curriculum design and delivery in which learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment are integrated to create the conditions for high-level learning.  Increasingly, research acknowledges the critical role that feedback plays in learning.  This feedback, if it is to be effective, needs to be based on and consistent with learning outcomes, assessment criteria and learning and teaching activities. This paper proposes that, although it may be implicit in the Constructive Alignment model, the potential of feedback to significantly impact on student learning warrants its explicit inclusion as a key element of the model.  Moreover, feedback, and in particular formative feedback, provides ongoing opportunities for teachers and students to monitor the extent of the alignment of the existing three elements of the constructive alignment model. In this way, feedback can deepen the shared understanding of the learning design for both...

Constructive Alignment is an approach to curriculum design and delivery in which learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment are integrated to create the conditions for high-level learning. Increasingly, research acknowledges the critical role that feedback plays in learning. This feedback, if it is to be effective, needs to be based on and consistent with learning outcomes, assessment criteria and learning and teaching activities. This paper proposes that, although it may be implicit in the Constructive Alignment model, the potential of feedback to significantly impact on student learning warrants its explicit inclusion as a key element of the model. Moreover, feedback, and in particular formative feedback, provides ongoing opportunities for teachers and students to monitor the extent of the alignment of the existing three elements of the constructive alignment model. In this way, feedback can deepen the shared understanding of the learning design for both students and teachers and sustain its coherence