Podcasting of Practical Summative Assessment Feedback: An Evaluation of Practice

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Introduction: feedback is a current higher education and National Student Survey hot topic. Student ratings of experience are powerful tools in university rankings. Use of podcasts has increased in education with the majority of work considering written assignment feedback. Few investigations have addressed feedback podcast for summative practical assessments. Methods: in an educational development project three modes of feedback (face-to-face, individual and group podcasts) were compared. Evaluation considered accessibility, student utilisation and perceptions of different feedback modes via a bespoke questionnaire. Staff time in production/delivery of feedback modes was evaluated. Results: response rate was high (83% N51). Students rated individual feedback higher than group modes in all aspects. Individual podcast was rated higher for informing future performance. However, face-to-face was the most preferred. More students (96%) accessed the individual podcast. Staff found a benefit of time for podcasts feedback. Discussion: findings for podcast feedback utilisation for future performance are in agreement with other literature on written assessments. Although podcasts proved an efficient method of ensuring everyone received feedback staff were unaware of the context, setting or emotional state in which the individual student received the content. Staff in our study found podcasting more time efficient.