Listening and Learning: Reflections on the use of Audio Feedback. An Excellence in Teaching and Learning Note

Abstract

This note reflects on student perceptions of audio feedback made available via the VirtualLearning Environment (VLE) for various types of assessment. Consistent with actionresearch the study identifies best practice, and highlights issues in relation toimplementation. It utilised four case studies where audio feedback was provided tostudents using the Wimba voice authoring tool within Blackboard Learn+ for variousdifferent types of summative assessment feedback. With increased pressures of larger classsizes and the resultant reduction in tutor–student contact of recent years in businesseducation, the intention was to identify where audio feedback via the VLE is effective andwhy, which was researched via a student survey. Based on these insights the findingshave been disseminated as best practice to other colleagues in the Higher Education (HE)sector, in particular focusing on where it has been most effective in relation to assessmentand feedback.Keywords: media-enhanced feedback, audio feedback, feed-forward, VLEsIntroductionIn the context of the National Student Survey (NSS) that identifies a clear relationshipbetween student satisfaction and feedback (HEFCE 2007 as cited by JISC 2010) and anindication that ‘students are far less positive about assessment and feedback on theirassignments than they are about other aspects of their learning experience’ (Williams et al.2008) the consideration of alternative mechanisms to enhance student feedback has neverbeen timelier. This is coupled with the considerable changes in the teaching environmentof business educators in recent years, including increased student numbers andmodularisation, and the subsequent larger class sizes, larger seminar groups and theresultant reduction in tutor–student one-to-one contact (Laughton 2012). An increasinghigher education (HE) evidence base demonstrates the benefits of more innovation in the© 2014