A guide to using feedback more effectively

A good educator knows when it is time to speak, and when it is time to listen. As we recognise that education is much more than just transmission of data, we recognise that educators have a responsibility to design a system of learning which includes regular feedback and evaluation systems which improve that design. Through feedback we seeking meaningful data of student learning on which to form judgements and through evaluation we plan and make strategic decisions on the basis of that data. These are fundamentally questions of educational design not administrative policy.

If there is one core theme of this manual it is the importance of moving beyond the strictures of compliance, audits and institutional review, to instead look at evolving good practice by which an educator is tapped into the learning environment, makes connections with learners and shapes their practice accordingly. Academics are all skilled researchers and it is through our feedback and evaluation procedures that we turn that critical lens on our teaching practice to best enable learning.

Welcome to the online version of the Learning Evaluation Manual, which provides a  menu of different options for gaining quality feedback on learning and teaching.   It is published under a creative commons licence.   While it has been written as a practical manual for my home university, I am developing a more extensive version for publication to a broader audience, including more academic discussion.

This is a fairly large guide, here split up for browsing but I'd also recommend the PDF version which has better formatting and additional content, available freely at http://bit.ly/LEManual.

Scott