Why Feedback is Important
As an assessor, you need to be open and receptive to feedback. Why? Because it’s a big part of the job! Throughout the assessment process, you’ll hear feedback from colleagues, students, and Internal Quality Assurers. And for you to succeed in your role, it’s vital you’re able to take that feedback on board.
Feedback from Internal Quality Assurance
When working as an assessor, you will undoubtedly have your own work assessed by an Internal Quality Assurer (also known as an Internal Verifier).
The IQA might check that:
- You’re correctly marking learner evidence
- You’re making correct assessment decisions
- You’re giving relevant and appropriate feedback to your learners.
The role of the IQA is to make sure that the assessment process meets the principles of assessment, and that assessment is fair, reliable, valid and authentic. They’ll be on the lookout for any signs of inconsistency, bias, or inaccuracy.
After being assessed
If an IQA thinks your work could use improvement, they’ll provide feedback to you and put an action plan in place to help you fix any problems.
Following the terms of this action plan is vital. If you don’t, you put your workplace at risk of failing audit and yourself at risk of losing your job.
In this respect, accepting Quality Assurance feedback is not only beneficial but an important part of your role as an assessor.
Feedback from Students
Feedback doesn’t only come from above. Sometimes you’ll get feedback from students on how they find your assessment methods and practice. It’s important to take this feedback on board to become a better assessor and to make sure you’re meeting the needs of all students on your course.
For feedback to be useful, it should be:
- Constructive
- Relevant
- Timely
This means feedback from learners should directly relate to your performance as an assessor and be given at appropriate times so you can act upon it. It should also lead to a positive outcome; this is what we mean when we say constructive criticism.
Giving learners the opportunity to give feedback
Learners won’t always feel confident giving unsolicited feedback. That’s why providing an opportunity for them to communicate with you for this purpose is important. This can be through regular feedback sessions in person and/or through surveys and questionnaires. You can even accept anonymous feedback to truly put learners at ease.
Tips to make the most of feedback
- Act on it – Feedback can feel like nothing more than criticism, but even bad feedback can have a positive outcome. But only if you identify your weaknesses and follow through on plans to improve those areas. Consider extra training or adapting your methods to respond positively to negative remarks.
- Identify your strengths – When we get feedback, it can be tempting to take the praise and do nothing more with it. In fact, positive feedback shows us what we really do well. Use that information to build an even stronger rapport with your students; lean into what they and you both enjoy most.
- Review – After getting feedback – good or bad – it can change the way we view ourselves and our work; either for the better or the worse. However, if you act immediately upon your feedback and take steps to improve, your employers and learners should see the difference. By requesting a review several months after receiving feedback, you have the opportunity to track your own progress.
Give Brooks and Kirk your feedback
At Brooks and Kirk, we know the importance of self-evaluation. We’re always looking for ways to improve our own products and services. So, if you have any feedback you’d like to leave for us – good or bad (although we hope all is good!) – please leave us a review on Trustpilot.