Audio feedback Roger Heaton Professor of Music http://professorgadget.blogspot.co.uk/

July 4, 2012

Previous research

•  JISC funded project Sounds Good: Quicker, better assessment using audio feedback, Rotheram, B., Leeds Metropolitan University, http://sites.google.com/site/soundsgooduk/

•  See the final report here: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/soundsgoodfinalreport.aspx#downloads

•  A word in your ear 2009 – Audio Feedback Conference Sheffield Hallam University 2009 http://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/

•  Macgregor, George, Spiers, Alex and Taylor, Chris (2011) ‘Exploratory evaluation of audio email technology in formative assessment feedback’, Research in Learning Technology, 19(1), p. 39.

•  Merry, S. and Orsmond, P. (2008) ‘Students’ attitudes to and usage of academic feedback provided via audio files’, Bioscience Education, 11, p. 11–3.

•  Nortcliffe, A. L. and Middleton, A. (2007) ‘Audio feedback for the iPod generation’, In International Conference on Engineering Education, p. 3–7.

•  Ribchester, Chris, France, Derek and Wheeler, Anne (2008) ‘Podcasting: a tool for enhancing assessment feedback?’, Presentation, [online] Available from: http://chesterrep.openrepository.com/cdr/handle/10034/15074 (Accessed 11 April 2011).

Some advantages

•  More personalized and understandable commentaries •  An increase in feedback detail •  An increase in feedback strategies available to tutors •  Student questionnaires show a high rate of satisfaction. •  Students comments: ‘more extensive feedback’, ‘targeted to specific points

for improvement’, ‘the work has been really looked at and evaluated personally’, ‘longer and more personal than written form’.

•  Good student engagement with the feedback with information being retained and valued particularly when a more sympathetic approach, via the spoken word, is used for negative feedback.

Module and method

•  Year 1 students - Study Skills for Musicians •  The task is a short (500 word) music analysis essay •  Mark using Word 'comments', or annotated PDF on the

iPad •  Record spoken feedback using Audacity •  Some examples -

Student comment

•  I liked having the audio feedback as it was more personal than the written feedback. Also, sometimes written comments are not completely clear as they can be taken in different ways but having a spoken track was reassuring and friendly. I do think that having certain areas that you speak about circled or underlined on the page is a good idea as I can jump straight to the next bit without having to find where you are.

Student comment

•  I just wanted to send you a quick message to say how helpful I found the recent audio feedback. It was particularly helpful to be able to go through the essay in front of me with you giving your notes over each section as I felt you were able to give more thorough feedback talking through the essay and it made it far closer to actually sitting down and going through the work one to one.

Student comment

•  Hearing your voice talking about my essay made it really easy to understand the tone of what you were saying. Sometimes I see my mark and think ‘not bad’ or ‘that’s good’ but then read through the comments and by the end of looking at the feedback I am slightly disheartened to how much went wrong. Hearing your voice however makes the criticism easy to take and even enjoyable to listen to as it doesn’t seem as harsh as seeing red lines and comments with no indication of tone. Hearing my work praised was also a lot better than seeing it written down as there is a more personal touch to it. The compliment sandwich is also a very good way of giving feedback (especial as an audio), as it gives a lasting sense of achievement.

Visit my blog for more information on audio feedback and the iPad project

http://professorgadget.yblogspot.co.uk/