{"id":22663,"date":"2025-01-14T11:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T00:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/?p=22663"},"modified":"2025-01-14T12:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T01:01:04","slug":"supporting-students-with-early-feedback-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/supporting-students-with-early-feedback-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting students with early feedback in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Higher Education Support Amendment Bill 2023<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The\u202f<\/span>Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023<\/span><\/a>\u202f requires universities establish a \u2018<\/span>Support for Students Policy<\/span><\/a>\u2019 and to report their compliance to the Minister of Education. The amended legislation requires us to have \u201cprocesses for identifying students at risk of not successfully completing their units of study and supports available to students to successfully complete their studies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Consequences for 1000-level and 2000-level units of study<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

To continue compliance in 2025, the University of Sydney\u2019s policies state that:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All 1000 and 2000 level unit of study subjects must include an assessment task identified as \u2018early feedback tasks\u2019 in the unit outline. This assessment:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(a) provides students with early feedback on whether they are ready for academic success in the unit;\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(b) may have low weight or no weight in the assessment framework for the unit; and\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(c) is used for academic staff to communicate with students about their progress, and available support services.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The early assessment should be timed such that feedback can be provided, communicated, and acted on <\/span>before<\/span><\/i> the <\/span>census date<\/span><\/a> for the unit. The University has a goal to extend the Early Feedback Task to all undergraduate and postgraduate units by 2027, ensuring students receive actionable feedback and targeted support before census date.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u2018early feedback task\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Does providing early feedback work?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is <\/span>considerable evidence<\/span><\/a> that early assessment and feedback increases student engagement and belonging, helps them adjust their study strategies and improve their performance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as importantly, early assessment enables educators to intervene and provide targeted support. Early, low stakes assessment and feedback is particularly important for commencing and equity students as it fosters engagement and\u202funderstanding of their\u202f<\/span>capability<\/span><\/a>\u202fand the\u202f<\/span>expectations and standards<\/span><\/a>\u202fof their educators.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why census date and when does the early feedback task need to be marked by?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Early assessment provides an opportunity for feedback to educators and students on their understanding of the\u202f<\/span>introductory<\/span><\/i>\u202fcontent in the unit. Feedback given in advance of the census date allows students to access help and make an informed decision about their enrolment. The census date is when students make a financial and academic commitment to the unit of study and is thus a key decision point.\u202f Census dates for each session are available on the university\u2019s\u202f<\/span>public-facing website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For units running in semester 1 2025, the early feedback task must be completed by students by the end of week 3, with marks and feedback provided to students by Monday of week 4. For units running in an intensive session, where the census date typically occurs around day 10 of teaching, marks and feedback must be provided by day 7.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What type of assessments should be used?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Typically, tasks that are suitable for early feedback involve <\/span>multiple choice (MCQ) or other automatically marked quizzes<\/span><\/a> including weekly pre or post-class quizzes. For students, MCQs aid in <\/span>knowledge retention<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>recall of previously-forgotten information<\/span><\/a>, and transfer of knowledge to unfamiliar problems. For educators, MCQs help <\/span>address common misconceptions<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>feedback can be displayed automatically to students in Canvas<\/span><\/a>, and MCQs can be automatically marked at scale before students are contacted.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In disciplines where writing tasks are preferred, text analysis and peer review writing activities, reading tasks and minute papers can be used, typically with a <\/span>rubric<\/span><\/a> so that marking can be completed quickly and feedback communicated to students before census date.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent examples of Early Feedback Tasks from across disciplines are available in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Designing for authenticity: early feedback in music<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Early Feedback Tasks \u2013 Design ideas from Arts and Social Sciences<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can existing or multiple assessments be used?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Many coordinators already use suitable tasks that can be adapted to provide early feedback. Others may wish to replace or build new tasks, perhaps with <\/span>the use of Cogniti to draft questions.<\/span><\/a> A Canvas\u202f<\/span>assignment group<\/span><\/a>\u202flabelled \u201cearly feedback task\u201d will be added to Canvas sites for each 1000-level and 2000-level unit of study as the Canvas sites are made, and the task can be added to the assignment group. Using a single task in the assignment group makes tracking easier. This consistent approach makes it easier to support staff and students across every unit of study.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What weighting should the assessment(s) have?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The assessment(s) can have a zero or low weighting to support the Early Feedback Task as an <\/span>open assessment <\/span>for<\/span><\/i> learning and <\/span>as<\/span><\/i> learning<\/span><\/a>. Students will be completing tasks in <\/span>all<\/span><\/i><\/b> their 1000-level and 2000-level units and so a weighting above 10% is not recommended.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Special consideration and simple extensions<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

If a zero weighted assessment is used, then no special consideration will be available. For other assessments, the normal special consideration process will apply. It is recommended that assessment types from the<\/span> Sydney Curriculum<\/a> category \u201cIn-class, small and continuous assessment\u201d (for S1) or <\/span>Practice and application \u2013 open<\/span><\/b> (such as an out-of-class quiz, for S2) are chosen to be the early feedback task(s), so that, among other reasons,\u202fspecial consideration can be processed quickly. <\/span>
\nIt is not recommended that the Sydney Curriculum category \u201cwritten assignments\u201d is used for the early feedback task, as automatic <\/span>simple extensions<\/span><\/a> apply to this category which may cause unintended delays to the pre-census marking and feedback process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Communicating available support to students<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Coordinators of 1000-level and 2000-level units of study will be communicating available support to students at two key points leading up to census date:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n