Evaluating the nature of summative feedback on electronically submitted work at a UK University: implications for post-compulsory education

Summative feedback provides individualised support for students in formal learning situations; however, numerous studies show that academic practice in summative feedback is highly uneven, that the purposes are poorly understood and that the provision of developmental feedback is often subsidiary to the justification of the assessment decisions. This study considers the nature of marker feedback on 105 pieces of summative work that were electronically submitted across 16 first degrees in sports at a UK University. The study explores the patterns of feedback practice and relates these to ideas of dialogic feedback, to the concept of Feedback Mark 2, and to feedback frameworks in the literature. The analysis shows that feedback practice is often monologistic, predominantly addressing the structure of student work and is characterised by the identification of deficiencies rather than the support of reflective learning. However, the study finds that the feedback on non-anonymised texts was more extensive and dialogic than that on anonymised texts. Overall, the study confirms that feedback practice is more aligned to transmissive approaches than to the empowerment of students through and identifies the implications for practice in post-compulsory education.