Technology-enhanced dialogic feedback in curriculum design

Our curriculum relied on monologic written feedback on end-of-unit summative essays. A review of external examiner reports, course evaluations, current and alumni student surveys and staff interviews raised several issues including lack of opportunity for feed-forward, and student and tutor isolation. Moving to technology-enhanced learning we redesigned the curriculum with feedback dialogue at its core. We moved to larger modules allowing assignment flexibility; sequenced all assignments; introduced assignment coversheets which included a framework for self-review; and introduced individual student journals. On receipt of tutor feedback students now load their marked assignment (including feedback on their self-review) into their journal and reflect on the feedback using structured questions. This gives the student and tutors easy access to all previous feedback dialogue. Next steps include introducing a patchwork assessment for students to self-review their progress towards meeting exit outcomes at Certificate and Diploma using evidence from their feedback dialogues.