Introducing Audio Feedback

Yesterday, I attended a presentation by Dr. Jo Phoenix, from the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University. Coming back to the University of Bath for a number of  other meetings, Jo spoke enthusiastically to former colleagues about developing a mechanism at her new institution when providing feedback to students for formative assignments.

Using a digital dictaphone (with a USB cable attachment), Jo recorded audio feedback for formative student assignments and made the files available via duo,  Durham University’s Blackboard-based VLE. Feedback took the form of c. 8 minutes recordings, where Jo would pause/record feedback as she worked her way through the essay.

The majority of students were pleased with the results, particularly as the marker was able to convey tone in her voice, indicating a variety of emotions. One student did comment that she was downbeat about the feedback form as she could “sense the disappointment in [Jo's] voice”.

The current format allows for all students to hear each others feedback, though as Jo quite rightly pointed out, the feedback would only make sense if the listener had the essay in front of them. A follow-up podcast could then be made avaiable for generalised feedback (for example, covering essay structure, grammar etc.), though this could just as easily be done at some point during a face-to-face lecture.

This approach does raise questions about accessibility of the feedback mechanism to students, and whilst no problems were encountered during Jo’s work, she did mention that feedback could be recorded through Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which would allow feedback to be given in text format with no additional overhead to the marker.

As the feedback for this assessment mentioned above audio-based, no extended feedback is available in written form. This does raise a variety of questions on the Quality Assurance (QA) side, particularly if this approach is extended to include summative assessment.  I would need to defer to my colleague Ellie Clewlow, Head of Enhancement and Development in the LTEO, who might be able to shed more light on the issues to do with the use of audio feedback for summative assignments/assessment. Is it even allowed?

We use Moodle as our VLE at the University of Bath, so a colleagues will have a couple of different options available to them if they wish to setup their own mechanisms for replicating this approach:

1. If you wish to allow students to hear each others feedback, create a new folder within the Files section of your Moodle course. Upload the files and then link to the relevant folder from your Moodle course home page. An alternative is to make the files available through the Learning Materials Filestore.
2. If you do not wish to allow students to hear each others feedback,
   • Create a Moodle assignment activity (choose the Advanced uploading of files option) and ask students to submit their assignments online.
   • Send the audio file as a response file, leaving a short amount of written feedback (and grade, if applicable) using the relevant dialog boxes.

Of course, the relevant dictaphones would be available from the Audio Visual unit at the University of Bath.

This inevitably raises questions about the effectiveness of audio feedback to students about work, over other methods. My next task would be to find out if any other institutions, UK and/or abroad, have used this approach and, if applicable, the degree tio which the approach has been successful. Moreover, it would be useful to know if any good practice advice exists.