When the pandemic lockdown first began, I had a brief period to finally read through the spring issue of The Chartered College of Teaching’s ‘Impact’ journal, which had been sitting on my dining room table for some time. Fancourt’s article on using audio feedback with KS5 groups, therefore, was timely for me; it gave me the perfect chance to ensure that my own A level groups would continue to get effective feedback whilst we all worked from home.
However, the benefits that Fancourt outlines have led me to think about how I am likely to continue this method when we are all back in school, as she highlights the benefits of it being time-efficient for staff and low-threat for students.
The Process
Students have been submitting their essays via Microsoft Teams for me, and this has still been the case for the video feedback, though I don’t need to try and edit it with the restrictions of text boxes or print a copy for my usual annotations). Instead, I open the document on my computer and start by reading through, making some brief (and very messy) notes on paper as I go, creating a rough plan for the video.
Once I’ve read through and made my notes, I then used screen recording software (there are many options here, with some devices having it built in, though Loom is a popular - and free - possibility) to record the video. After it’s been recorded, I then upload the video to my OneDrive and share the link in the ‘feedback’ box for the assignment where the work is submitted, ready for the student to access.
The next stage, which Fancourt mentions in her article, is that students fill in a reflection document to record their interpretation of the feedback. I adapted the questions that Fancourt used to help students support their reflection and redraft (see links at the end of the blog) and also asked that students return the document to me once completed. I felt that this was a crucial stage in the process, as it:
- Gave students a sense of accountability for recording their feedback
- Ensured that students had a log of targets for future essays (I get them to copy and paste them onto the next piece of work to help me with the marking)
- Ensured that students attempted to use their targets to improve
- Allowed me to check that students understood my feedback where needed
Obviously, it is possible that this borders on a mutation of ‘triple marking’, so I want to highlight that the submission of these sheets wasn’t for the purpose of more feedback. Instead, I saw it as a quality-assurance measure whilst I trained students in how to respond to feedback effectively (allowing me to address the odd student who made notes that were too brief or didn’t answer all of the reflection questions).
Reflections
I found the video element particularly helpful, especially whilst we were working remotely, as it allowed me to highlight where my feedback applied to, as well as modelling improvements in the same way that I would do in a lesson. This was important to me, as I agree with Christodoulou that feedback should be ‘a recipe’ for improvement; and recipes are easier for many to follow when ‘show not tell’ is used to illustrate how to follow the steps.
Students were also positive about the feedback, highlighting the advantages with the comments below:
- “I found it easier to understand the context of my targets and how they were linked.”
- “The feedback was in more depth, as you explained the targets in more detail.”
- “Making my own notes from your feedback helped me to engage with my targets.”
Next Steps?
As I have already mentioned, I will definitely be looking to use video feedback for KS5 classes when we go back to ‘normal’ (or something that’s close to normal at least. However, I admit that the process might not be as useful for individual feedback for a class of 30, since it is likely that this would increase workload.
However, it’s certainly useful as a substitute for written feedback for specific students who have low literacy and I’d also consider using the process for whole-class feedback, perhaps getting students to engage with the video and make notes at home before I then develop the feedback and give more time for independent practice in the classroom.
Links:
Fancourt’s Impact article: Listen and Respond: Evaluating the Use of Audio Feedback:
My self reflection sheets (including a template and a student example):
