SMART Feedback: Exploring the impact of action-focused student feedback on the student experience of learning

• Project Team: Charlotte Lattin-Rawstrone
• Subject Discipline: Psychology and Counselling
• Theme: AssessmentEmployability/Careers
• Project Aim: Enables more students to achieve their study goalsEnhances employability and career progressionImproves and enhance the learning experience of studentsPromotes equality diversity and inclusion including reduction of degree awarding gap
• Status: Live
• Date: March 2022 to August 2023

The proposed study intends to investigate the application of aspects of the research and framework through an intervention that builds on this framework with a specific focus on the reciprocal process and enactment of outcomes of feedback components by using SMART goals in the feedback process.

SMART (Specific; Measurable; Attainable; Realistic; Timely) goals have long been used in a variety of environments, from fitness goal setting through to coaching and performance management following their original utilisation in a business context (Doran, 1981). The rationale for their use is to assist in planning an actionable way to make changes. Studies have worked with the use of these goals in a feedback context, for example Lawlor and Hornyak (2012) and Schippers et al. (2020), but these have been within a classroom setting rather than using online written feedback as the predominant method of feedback interactions. Current practice within the Psychology and Counselling department does not specify the use of SMART goals but suggest that tutors provide feedforward advice for each student. Supporting this through a specific framework and style of goal-setting is the aim of the study, to see whether this enhances the process for students and/or tutors. The research questions is ‘Does SMART feedback improve student attainment and experience?’. This will be carried out as a pilot in DE100 with a view to larger scale implementation.