Mid-term Feedback using the Audio function on Turnitin

Contributed by Jack Fosten, King’s Business School.

This feedback intervention took place on a level 5 Econometrics module.  It took place in a mid-term summative assessment worth 20% of the module.

Why did you introduce this approach to feedback?

This summative assessment was a 24-hour take home exam where students were given questions to solve and submit their answers through Turnitin via KEATS. The question was split into multiple parts to test students’ understanding of the mathematical properties of econometric models and the application of these models to real-world data. I decided to give audio feedback through the Turnitin feedback summary so that i). I could deliver better feedback in a more time-effective manner than standard with written comments, and ii). to give students personalised comments relating to their performance and specific feedback to help them learn, revise and prepare for the final exam.

How do you approach giving feedback in this way?

• Students have 24 hours to complete assignment (they have a maximum of 3 pages) and submit on Turnitin.
• Students were given the following feedback:

1. Drag-and-drop comments on script.
2. Personalised audio feedback using the Turnitin Voice Comment in Feedback layer, explaining where they went wrong and how to focus revision.
3. General feedback and solutions uploaded to Keats with common mistakes, etc.

What benefits did you see?

Although it is too soon to see the benefits on learning until students complete a final assignment, feedback from students was sought using a Poll Everywhere poll during the lecture one week after feedback was given. The results are shown below:

Further analysis is needed to break down the specifics of what exactly students found useful in order to support the rationale.

What challenges have you encountered, and how have you addressed them?

• The audio upload took a long time in “Preparing to Save” . This was raised with CTEL & TEL manager but as yet there is no solution
• The Audio feedback on Turnitin will only allow 3 minutes of recording. It can also be quite difficult to edit.