Analysis of responses

Overall improvement in performance

As mentioned above, essay assignments are the most common form of assessment for bioscience students in the faculty. In the first year (level 1), essay titles require students to research highly factual topics and as the students progress through the levels to final year level 3, they are given increasingly discursive topics to write about. However, the majority of students feel safer with factual accounts and the discursive element of the essay rarely emerges. On the whole, students in the final year avoid taking risks and sticking their necks out and would rather find out how their peers are tackling the essays and conform to this standard. The majority of students do not approach the academic staff if they have any problems understanding the essay topic and instead seem to ask equally uncertain friends doing the same assignment. There is much anecdotal evidence of collusion between students when writing essays as evidenced by very similar references being used and similarities between the layout and wording of the structure, content and text.

The essay set for this exercise was approached in a similar way as described above and few students displayed level 3 attributes of synthesis, evaluation, reflection and discursive powers. However, when it came to responding to the comments on the essay, all students showed a remarkable uplift in using level 3 attributes. In terms of meeting L3 criteria for assignments, students performed better in the reflection on the essay than the essay itself. This was reflected in the marks obtained overall. For the essay the mean mark was 62% (n = 59; sd 3.1%), and for the reflection the mean was 68.7% (n = 59; sd 3.8%).

Although specific questions were asked about the bioscience content, this topic focuses on the generic responses obtained as this would have wider interest in the HE community.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Comments from a student whose marks were as expected

The student experience Comments from a student whose marks were below expectation

Is feedback valuable?

Is feedback used in other assignments?

Is any attention paid to the markers comments on essays?

Are markers comments read?

Is it sufficient to award just a mark?

Value of feedback

Overall results

Results Initial intentions

Practical skills (subject specific)

Key/transferable skills (generic)