Swansea Academy of Learning and Teaching

Facilitating the provision of detailed, deep and useful feedback is an important design feature of any educational programme. Here we evaluate feedback provided to medical students completing short transferable skills projects. Feedback quantity and depth were evaluated before and after a simple intervention to change the structure of the feedback-provision form from a blank free-text feedback form to a structured proforma that asked a pair of short questions for each of the six domains being assessed. Each pair of questions consisted of asking the marker 'what was done well?' and 'what changes would improve the assignment?' Changing the form was associated with a significant increase in the quantity of the feedback and in the amount and quality of feedback provided to students. We also observed that, for these double-marked projects, the marker designated as 'marker 1' consistently wrote more feedback than the marker designated 'marker 2'.

Open online courses are changing higher education. Traditional colleges face dangers-and opportunities."

"Imagine you receive the same lecture twice: once from a charismatic lecturer speaking fluently without notes and maintaining eye contact; and again from a hesitant speaker, slumped over her notes and stumbling over her words. Which is better? In terms of what you learn there is surprisingly little to choose between the two, according to a team of psychologists."

"Remember when Coursera - the world's largest purveyor of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) - was going to disrupt higher education, and put hundreds if not thousands of public institutions out of business? I know it's hard to cast your mind back all of eighteen months, but try. Actually don't.  Because it's all over. Yesterday, Coursera did a weird strategy about-face by announcing that, rather than competing with public colleges, it's going to start competing with Blackboard instead"

"Pedagogical strategies and technologies for peer assessment in Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs)"

"Which Technology Should I Use To Teach Online?": Online Technology and Communication Course Instruction

"Welcome to the Open Learning Design Studio's MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) "Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum". The course ran from 10th January to 13th March 2013. There are currently no plans to repeat the live presentation, however all the materials remain available as Open Educational Resources"

"This policy statement seeks to set a new vision for higher education in Wales as we approach 2020."