What is it?

Following a number of low scores on the National Student Survey, several departments across the University of Southampton started to use online platforms such as E-Assignments or Turnitin to mark assignments and deliver feedback. This has proved to be particularly successful with students who maintain that annotated scripts are very helpful and particularly useful in terms of written assignments. As a result, many departments have found that their feedback scores in the National Student Survey have improved. For further information regarding E-Assignments, visit: https://www.assignments.soton.ac.uk/public/Help.aspx. For Turnitin, visit: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/isolutions/computing/elearn/blackboard/esub/staffplagiarism.html

Once students’ assignments and exam scripts have been marked, many academic staff post solutions to common problems experienced by students. This can be a useful way of giving a large amount of feedback to students, which can be used year after year.

How can students make the most of it?

It is important that students take the time to go through any feedback they may have received and identify not only their strengths, but also their weaknesses. This will consequently allow them to concentrate their efforts on their weaknesses, and make further progress. Similarly, if students find that their department doesn’t use online platforms, such as E-Assignments, to deliver feedback, they should talk to either their course rep or lecturer about it.