Challenges in marking and providing feedback are nothing new in higher education. Educators invest considerable time and energy in feedback, yet much of that effort goes unread or unused, and students continue to report that feedback practices fall short. Why does this persist?
The evidence points to a few key findings. Feedback is often positioned as a justification for a grade rather than a means of advancing learning. There is also promise in developing students’ feedback literacy and evaluative judgement, so they better understand the role of feedback and what to do with it. Finally, emerging design approaches suggest that feedback lands better when it is provided deliberately, at checkpoints or key assessments, and integrated across multiple assessment points rather than attached to each task in isolation.
In this workshop, you will draw on Curtin’s Sustainable Marking guide to examine how assessment, marking and feedback can be designed together rather than sequentially. You will work through practical principles and worked examples that show how deliberate design choices can lift the quality and developmental value of feedback, while remaining mindful of workload and timing, and then apply these to your own unit.
Duration: 60-90 minutes
Format: in person or online via Microsoft Teams
Group size: 30-60 participants
Bring along: a current unit outline or assessment design
Facilitator: Raelene Tifflin
The workshop is structured around three themes from the guide. You will examine each through worked examples, then apply them to your own unit.
- Designing the Assessment: design assessments as a coherent package rather than standalone tasks, and invest in well calibrated rubrics that establish a shared understanding of quality standards between markers and students.
- Planning Marking as a Team: consider the full scope of marking and moderation early in the design process, and approach planning as a collegial conversation.
- Making Feedback Work Harder: connect feedback across assessments, use cohort level feedback alongside individual feedback, and direct marker attention to reasoning, concept application and professional judgement, particularly where students can use AI tools.
You will leave with at least one evidence informed change that strengthens the quality and sustainability of feedback in your unit.