Democratising Feedback Literacy: Adapting the DEFT Toolkit for Distance Education
Start date
September 2024End date
September 2025Overview
Feedback can only benefit students’ learning when students engage with it. Professor Naomi Winstone and her team has previously developed a research-informed toolkit - Developing Engagement with Feedback Toolkit (DEFT) - to support students’ engagement with feedback. This is now creating impact worldwide, being used by over 150 Universities and colleges.
Containing a feedback guide, tools for a feedback workshop, and the components of a feedback portfolio, the DEFT was designed for use in face-to-face learning environments to enhance student feedback literacy by facilitating dialogue and action planning around feedback between students, peers, and teachers.
However, the DEFT in its current form does not cater to the specific challenges of distance education where students may not interact synchronously with teachers and peers, so must engage with feedback far more autonomously, sometimes without opportunities for dialogue. Further development of the toolkit is required to accommodate the higher level of student autonomy involved in distance education, and therefore, adapting the DEFT for distance education has the potential for democratising the development of feedback literacy, worldwide.
Team
Principal Investigator
Professor Naomi Winstone
Professor of Educational Psychology, Director of the Surrey Institute of Education
Biography
Naomi completed a BSc (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Surrey in 2005, which included a professional training year in educational psychology with Dorset County Educational Psychology Service. She then completed an MSc in Psychology of Early Development at the University of Reading in 2006, before returning to Surrey to undertake a PhD. Naomi has been working at the University of Surrey since September 2009, during which time she has held the roles of Director of Studies and Director of Learning and Teaching (School of Psychology) and Associate Dean for Education (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences). She now leads the Surrey Institute of Education, a centre for excellence in learning and teaching. Naomi is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was awarded National Teaching Fellowship in 2016. She is also an Honorary Professor in the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University, Australia, and has been a Faculty Scholar at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI) at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Dr Robert Nash
Head of Psychological Research - National Institute of Teaching
Dr Kieran Balloo
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
Biography
I am a mixed methods researcher whose work broadly explores learning, teaching and assessment practices in higher education, with a particular focus on student transitions, equity, and wellbeing. I have a disciplinary background in Psychology, and my research emphasises the importance of innovative and inclusive educational practices to support diverse student populations.
I have been awarded, as Principal or Co-Investigator, a total exceeding £300,000 in competitive grants from prestigious funders, including the Economic and Social Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. These grants have supported my research on assessment and feedback, inclusive curricula, and student mental health.
As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, I have also been recognised for my sustained record of productivity in teaching and influencing the practices of others. I have teaching experience at undergraduate, postgraduate, and university preparation levels.
Planned Impact
This ESRC IAA funded project will develop a version of the toolkit designed for distance learners’ needs and evaluate its impact in prison education settings in Australia, as an extreme form of distance education requiring the highest level of student autonomy in feedback processes. The emphasis will be to support learners to develop skills that enable them to exercise autonomy not only in using feedback information but also in generating inner feedback.
Following evaluation of the new distance learning-DEFT in Australian prison education, Prof Winstone and her team will also scope its use in two further contexts: UK Prisons (via engagement with the Prisoners’ Education Trust and the Open University) and Regional Study Hubs across Australia (via engagement with the Australian Regional Universities Network).
- Open access toolkit available for use by distance educators and their students
- Attendance at launch webinars
- Download/view statistics
- Number of learners engaging with the new toolkit and efficacy in supporting learners to better generate and use feedback to inform learning (based on testimonials)
- DL-DEFT supporting learners to generate and use feedback to inform learning (based on testimonials)
- Manuscript to be submitted to a journal such as Studies in Higher Education
- Use of the DL-DEFT to enable Education Officers in prisons and those supporting distance education to reduce transactional distance and support learning through engagement with feedback
