 So first off my name is Lisa O'Regan and I'm here representing the project and the project team is here And they'll join me for questions at the end So first off our project Supporting transition enhancing assessment feedback and first are using digital technologies So this project is all about feedback and it's all about feedback and first year So for short we call ourselves. Why won't feedback? Our year one feedback Okay, so who's involved? So our partners are National Forum obviously our funders and the new university at Lone Institute of Technology Dublin City University and Dundalk Institute of Technology, and we are also cluster partners as well Okay, so what's the project about? So what the project aims to do is to identify and develop approaches for feedback and first year and using digital technologies and particularly we're looking at feedback approaches feed forward and pure feedback for students And I suppose overall and the project will take a design-based research approach in that We will start from the literature and We will develop approaches from the literature what we see and then we will Develop case studies with them working with departments and then we will refine them and through iterations to case studies working with people so That's just an overview of how we'll work and Our plan so overall what is the project going to do? So we've three phases phase one is year one phase two and three is your two and we're currently about 25 percent way through In phase one, so we're going to establish the project We're going to conduct a current practice review to get a sense of what's happening on the ground because we don't we don't really know What's happening on the ground in our institutions? So the first thing was to do to see well What's the state of play and then to look at the literature? what is the literature saying and The next stage then is to identify the approaches To agree them and to plan the pilots with departments and to get both staff and students involved once we've planned and are ready to go we're going to pilot them and Refine them the approaches from there We're going to develop the case studies and hopefully we're hoping that these are going to be in video for a format So that it will be real practitioners sharing their experience They'll be associated are there will be guides with them and the final step would be to disseminate that and one of the ways Will be a national symposium okay to share practice? Okay, so that's an overview of the plan. So where are we now? So as I said, we're about 25 percent way true and What we said we do we have done maybe a different order and we've established the project We've established the project team We have planned and conducted the current practice review and that is we'll be able to share some findings with you in a minute we have established it web presence and We're planning the literature summary and we have a research assistant in place doing that so Challenges, I suppose challenges with the amount of work. I suppose In one way and someone mentioned earlier ethics That was a challenge not so much in the ethics applications themselves was an opportunity to get quickly into the project But more of the timeline and meeting the different ethics application Committee deadlines and doing that very quickly. So we really had to set the round running Just to say in terms of establishing the project we kicked off and in January we met We met face-to-face after that we met weekly for the first six weeks And then we moved to bi-weekly meetings and via skype via Skype So this is the team So you can see myself mark Brown new la Harding more of a goer Jerry Galler her Geraldine and Elaine Welch. So this is the team. So how we work as I said We meet regularly we Everything is on Google Docs. We share that and I suppose from the start We have had a very collaborative approach and with a great commitment from all the team, which has Been a great help in meeting our targets Okay, so and our next outcome really is about I suppose developing the project web presence and To say we've shortened our title to become why one feedback. So you're one feedback I suppose the logo represents what we hope this project will achieve in terms of Proving feedback dialogue for our first-year students. So we hope that the That the logo reflects that We've developed web presence and what gives a few if you'd like more information our project. It's there Ultimately, this will be a tool for dissemination and we hope that the resources the case studies that we develop will be shared here so at the moment it's probably a skeleton of what it will become and We will populate it as we go along Okay, we're also on Twitter and we would encourage you to follow us and as the project progresses There will be more going on, but we also want to hear from People in our own institutions and nationally about the approaches they're trying Okay, so this is where the bulk of our work has been in the first in the first phase We thought it was really important to start from a sense of where we're at and to get a real sense of What is the experience for our students in first year and what is the practice of our staff and not so much to evaluate it But to get an insight into it a clearer idea So as I said, we want to get a snapshot how we did it so what we we decided the best approach to do this was to look at an online staff survey and student focus groups and The process started out with designing those those survey instruments and seeking ethical approval at each of our institutions Okay, so We're asked today to showcase our outcomes. So the best outcome I think that we can show a some of our data So we're going to share some of that with you I would say that we are still analyzing it in this preliminary, but then you should get a sense of what we've found And so what are our student focus groups? So basically they we met with first-year class representatives of the current cohort and What we did was we there was a focus group in each institution We partnered with the students union in each Institution in each institution and they worked with us and to get student involvement So the focus groups ran in April and in total we had 36 class reps involved across the focus groups So and with a mix of disciplines all across Okay, so everyone maybe wants to know what students thought So just to say I'm just going to give you an overview today very very high level But what were the type of things coming up? What is very clear from students is that they really value feedback and They definitely recognize it's in value for future learning in it and for progression The key theme that came out or key words that came out that came up like a huge number of times was this idea of doing wrong and fixing getting it wrong and So we found this very interesting and it's something we'll explore further and What we have found is that there is probably no consistent experience of feedback and first-year for our students. We can't Some people there are great Accounts of something that's coming to mind is the feedback woman or the feedback guy or they'll sit down and talk to you There are great examples of feedback. So to start from that and there are also examples of maybe not getting feedback So it is definitely inconsistent and there are Was good and bad examples emerging and What type of feedback are students getting well It seems to be predominantly grades or this is what the students are saying and There are grades of brief comments and predominantly in handwritten or or given orally face-to-face and this is the overall picture and The timing this is very much again no consistent pattern here that we can see from the student data so far and Very much it may be to do with lecture based dependent on the lecturer dependent the tutor came up quite a lot these type of phrases Very much in the acknowledgement of it depends on the class size Students are very realistic or they seem to be about well, it depends, you know When I get the feedback will depend on the size of the group Use of technology it would seem to be low in the number of the evidence that we've got So just to give you a very quick meant to go back So this is just an example the idea of doing wrong Okay, and the idea of timing might take a while but when you do get it, it's really good and Maybe doesn't come in time for the next assignment and There's evidence of video being used They really liked that and There's also frustration on the part of the students and that's coming through also They feel it's not being used maybe it's technology Okay, so what did the students say when we asked them, you know, how would you like feedback in first year? What what what are your suggestions for change? So the biggest thing or one of the key themes that came out for us is about consistency students would like consistency between modules They would get it in every module They would like more than a grade they would like comments Okay, and now obviously you've evidence that some of them are getting a lot of that, you know, there's a but there is this of not as all and If something came up around part-time, you know that the lecture may not always be there later When the module is over when the assignments are going back the idea of the part-time So these are just something for things for us to take into consideration when we're developing or identifying the approach And just to say I should have said it sorry We did take a very much a kind of a grounded approach like we we use the literature and form the design of the surveys But in terms of the data, we're very much taking the teams from the data And so it's what they're saying so staff Okay, so who do we we we need to talk to staff to We talked to those who currently teach first year into graduates. We developed the survey It went out in May June and we had 213 respondents and from we estimate the populations around six six hundred Okay, so what it's what's the general picture for staff? and That they would always are frequently provide feedback That it's predominantly handwritten or orally provided which would match up with the student data and That it is usually given between one and two weeks. This is a so we That is just a sense. So One of the things that we're looking to do is to leverage the potential of technology to get feedback to students Maybe different formats quicker, you know when to support those large numbers. So technology is the key thing So what technologies were used to give feedback at the moment word was number one. I should do a competition here What do people think email? Moodle feedback Moodle grades and to a much less of their extent moodle quiz. Okay, so that's just a Highlights, so we asked staff so we asked students, you know How what they think and we also asked staff and we asked them to recommend approaches? They've tried and worked and number three minutes. Okay. I really better go. Okay face-to-face was number one Detailed written feedback and one-to-one Group or class decisions and to a much lesser extent rubrics and MCQs Okay, so we asked them or the challenges. You won't be surprised by these numbers time workload student engagement Attendance and technology came last which is potentially a good thing Here's just some of things they said a sense of frustration here was sometimes not students not engaging with the feedback a sense that the best way to give you back is one-to-one and The thing about the technology the partners all use Moodle and the chem through that they found Moodle plunky What were their solutions reduced class size? Provide feedback close to student submission. This is somewhere we can maybe help more training and training students on feedback Okay, so take away so far. So how how is this going to impact our our approach as we think about? So this is just very initial But the thing that comes through is we need a conversation about feedback needs to be between staff and students about what feedback is and how it works it Perception the technology takes more time came through a lot This is something maybe we can address myth or reality does it take more time to to use technology to give feedback The technology is clunky We need approaches the cope with numbers. This is the biggest thing that comes through How can we how can we identify models that will help people get? feedback back to more numbers quicker and The other thing is how can we replicate face-to-face feedback discussions online the face-to-face came through really a lot Okay, our literature view is ongoing We obviously started the very start and we've now employed a research decision to carry it forward and Together with the current practice review and the literature view this will inform the approaches So our national impact We are going to take this this frame framework is also used in Australia And we'll be focusing on our outputs how we're impacting teaching practice learning and the project team Just to say quickly we are looking to bring on subject matter experts as advisors on the project And we're also looking to maintain the relationship with the students union and and asking the incoming student union officers If they would become advisors, so it may be one or two meetings a year. It's to advise us on key stages So what are the benefits? I hope they're clear already, but it's not what we're going to have at the end of this He is research informed suite of technology enhanced approaches for first year Okay, there will be a benefit to the entire sector and we will disseminate those Now there should be increased awareness capacity and take up of digital technology support assessment feedback practice Some of what came back was we're not aware what's out there. We need more training and what's out there So this is certainly something that our case studies and our approaches will address And lastly what we hope the end result will be will be an enhanced feedback Experience for first-year students and more opportunities for feed-forward That is very quick overview. Thank you for listening