Oral feedback in the form of an electronic recording (video or audio) is gaining preference over traditional feedback in electronic form or hard copy. Audio feedback (AuF) is oral feedback recorded in an electronic media file accessible to students. AuF can be targeted either to individuals or groups of students or even the whole class, in relation of any aspect of the education provision (e.g. coursework assignment, draft, presentation, etc). The recorded file is usually played back by any media player available on a computer or mobile device.
We have collaboratively develop a document about AuF that can be accessed here. The document presents a advantages and disadvantages of AuF compared to traditional text feedback and can be used as guidelines to create AuF for your modules.
Several colleagues have implemented audio feedback during the last few years. The guidance document was developed by contributing with their input. In addition, here is a brief testimonial about their experience so far:
- “For the last four years I am using AuF for my IF units. The reason is simple. Efficiency. Time efficiency. Comment efficiency. Feedback efficiency. As a newcomer in our faculty some years ago, I gave my first written feedback to students and I was monitoring their reactions. They were just seeing the mark and were asking me why they got that mark. I told them to read my comments. They replied (among other “reasons”) “can you please tell us your comments because ….” So, I realised that this feedback approach was not so efficient, neither for me nor the students. My next next step was to discuss with my students in every level, what type of feedback do they prefer and perceive as a useful and helpful for them and their studies. Their response was “Probably not a written one.” Thus, with the support of Prof. Kefalas and BAED I took the initiative to use AuF. Students reactions were pretty positive covering and demonstrating advantages of AuF. Among other responses, the vast majority of the students stated (and continue to state) that they “find quite useful this type of feedback due to the fact that it feels like you (I) are talking face to face to us and the most useful fact is that we do remember your comments while writing our next assignment”. Efficiency. From my personal perspective, I believe that AuF is quite useful and efficient approach for us (instructors) and the students. Indeed there are some disadvantages concerning AuF, however they are being addressed with new contemporary approaches, like providing an audio-visual feedback, but that's something that is going to shared in our next testimonial.” Tassos Diamantidis
- “I have used AuF both in my UG, masters (online and face to face) and MBA units and the response from students has been overwhelmingly positive. I believe the feedback I am giving is even more specific and allows for me to go into greater depth. I have also had fewer requests for additional information since I adopted AuF. For the MBA in particular, where there is a need to mark a large number of assignments over a very short period of time, AuF has also ‘saved’ my shoulders and arms from all the typing ーan additional health advantage!” Leslie Szamosi
- “I was using typewritten feedback for the presentations and the mock job interviews in both my units. I was spending toooo much time writing and sending emails to the students. I was also sure that students were just looking at their marks without paying attention to the long text I was providing to them. Last year, after discussing ‘feedback practices’ with the Community of Learning (CiLT) I decided to use AuF for these components. I use a mobile application which matches my needs and saves me lots of time. After recording AuF this goes directly to Google Drive and then I am sending the AuF to the students. When it comes to quality but also the motivational part of feedback, the feedback I receive from my students is extremely positive. This is the first time that I had received emails from students stating that even if their mark was lower than expected, they loved their feedback and it was clear to them what they had to improve. AuF is more direct, more informal and it can also become more motivational. One of the students said that she was repeatedly ‘playing’ the AuF because she could not get enough of it. The only issue for me is that the recording must take place in a quiet environment…..so it is really difficult when sharing your office. Also, make sure you know the time παλιατζής (junk-dealer) passes by….you may have to re-record it” Aggeliki Papakonstantinou
- “I have used personalized audio feedback since last year. I have only positive comments to make. It is a little more time consuming than written feedback, given that I need to make some notes as I read the assignment, in order to know what to say in my recorded message to the student(s). Other than that, I have seen positive responses from students since they considering as a “face-to-face” provision of feedback. It is much more detailed and richer. Regarding using a rubric, I strongly disagree with it as it would primarily confuse the students (in their effort to align the verbal comments with the ticks on the rubric). Besides, in the recorded message I take all the criteria and discuss them, hence students fully understand the “range” they are in as per each criterion. Also, doing a rubric additionally to the audio message is duplication of work and indeed very time consuming (both in filling it in as well as sending out to students individually). I strongly urge colleagues to try personalized audio feedback” Chris Liassidis
- “How many times have you received an email from a student thanking you for the provided feedback? My guess would be zero to maximum two in the last decade. I have been increasingly receiving such emails or verbal comments during the past three years, after I started providing AuF. And this tells me everything I need to know about how this form of feedback is perceived and appreciated by students in comparison to my previous hand- or typewritten practices. From my own perspective, I can assure you that, after the initial learning curve, either you provide same-quality feedback in way less time or way better feedback in the same amount of time. My experience so far indicates that this is a win-win situation. When it comes to the more technical details, I can tell you that I started by using TurnItIn’s audio recording feature but found the 3-minute limit very restrictive. I have now switched to Audacity and am quite satisfied but am planning to try out something new if it means avoiding manually sending individual emails. Finally, the last time I provided AuF, I also combined it with a very basic rubric: I included in the email a list of the assessment criteria with a mark classification for each of them, which appears to have an added value for students. All in all, as things are now I cannot possibly imagine going back to written feedback, unless there are exceptional circumstances. I strongly urge you to give AuF a try!” Ioanna Stamatopoulou
Petros Kefalas, IFDLT
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