ABSTRACT
There has been a proliferation of studies over the past two decades looking at aspects of feedback to students and identifying how feedback can best encourage students’ learning. Based on an extensive literature search, Gibbs and Simpson (2004) identified seven conditions under which feedback is believed to influence students’ learning. These have been used to form part of a conceptual framework for improving students’ learning through changing assessment (Gibbs et al., 2003). These conditions concern the quantity, timing and quality of the feedback and the students’ response to it. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2004) identified seven broad principles of good feedback practice from the literature, discussed by David Nicol and Colin Milligan in Chapter 5 of this volume in the context of technologysupported assessment practices. Six of these are to do with the learning process, students’ understanding of good performance or the effects of feedback on students’ motivation and self-esteem. The feedback conditions and principles of good feedback practice are stated in Table 6.1.
