Assessment dialogues : perceptions of feedback and feed-forward

![CDATA[Carless (Stud Higher Educ 31(2):219–233, 2006) recommended ‘assessment dialogues’ to reduce tutors’ and students’ different perceptions of feedback. Written feedback and feed-forward on assessments are a form of dialogue. While this communication is important, so too are assessment dialogues between subject coordinators, tutors and assessment experts. A case study of a large-enrolment, first-year subject is a vehicle for the assessment dialogues. The assessment design is described along with an innovation in which students reflected on their academic writing for their first written assessment and, for their second, reflected on the feedback and feed-forward they received on their first. The first assessment dialogue involved the subject coordinator, an academic learning advisor and students and centres on designing and explicating the syllabus, particularly the assessments. The second assessment dialogue was between the academic learning advisor, tutors and the subject coordinator, focusing on the development and refinement of a feedback/feed-forward comment bank for content and academic writing, which was derived from the analyses of past feedback and feed-forward. The third and final dialogue was between tutors (markers) and students and an analysis of students’ interpretations of feedback and feed-forward. It is concluded that there are challenges to the provision of effective feedback and feed-forward for student learning, but dialogues informed by data and theory are effective for gaining traction. In the current context, the bigger picture is to align assessment design, feedback and feed-forward to the first-year transition agenda.]]