Identifying Effective Formative Assessment Practices and Feedback Processes: Lecturer and Student ExperiencesProject description

The first of two linked projects compared methods of

formative assessment in open and distance learning

environments and identified techniques that could

enhance student learning.

The second project evaluated students' perceptions of

formative assessment using structured interviews. Replies

suggested that the assessment in many distance learning

courses was too tightly focused on exams, providing

insufficient feedback, and that computer mediated

communication tools such as social software can facilitate

formative assessment practices and learning.

Methods Formative assessment aims at providing students with feedback on their marked work that will enable them to engage with their studies and improve their performance.

These two linked projects set out to explore tutors’ and students’ experiences of formative assessment in distance education, and to recommend good practice. The first project involved conducting interviews with tutors across several disciplines in three disparate institutions involved in distance education and building up a set of case studies.

There was agreement that dialogue between students and tutors leading to “empowering” of the students is particularly important in formative assessment.

Strategies for computer-based formative assessment that maintain this dialogue and the active participation of students are to be preferred, although this can be difficult in some instances such as end-of-year assessments. Peer assessment, which was used most widely by the Open University, was seen as particularly valuable.

The second project explored the experience with formative assessment of distance learning students at the same three institutions. Students found formative assessment extremely valuable and generally learned less from summative assessments such as exams. The use of communication

Teaching and Research AwardsUniversity of London International Programmes Centre for Distance Education www.cde.london.ac.uk and cde@london.ac.uk

tools that encourage dialogue between student and tutor, including social software, in assessment practices can facilitate dialogue and understanding and it would be useful to explore these tools further.

OutputsPapersHatzipanagos, S. and Warburton, S. (2009). Feedback as Dialogue: Exploring the Links between Formative Assessment and Social Software in Distance Learning. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(1), 45 – 59.

ResearchersStylianos Hatzipanagoss.hatzipanagos@kcl.ac.ukPaul BlackAna LucenaSteve WarburtonKing's College LondonBob McCormickOpen University

Presentations Hatzipanagos, S. & Warburton, S. (2007).

Closing the Loop: Exploring the Links between Formative Assessment and Social Software in Distance Education. Paper presented at the World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, June 2007, Vancouver, Canada

Lucena, A. Hatzipanagos, S. (2008). Rethinking assessment in distance learning contexts: do tutors’ beliefs matter? Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, September 2008, Göteborg, Sweden.

Hatzipanagos, S. (2008) Feedback in formative e‐assessment: closing the loop in distance learning. Presented at Computers and Learning Research Group conference, June 2008, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Hatzipanagos, S. (2010) Feedback as dialogue and learning technologies: can e-assessment be formative? Seminar at the Centre for Distance Education, April 2010