Promoting metacognitive learning by online detailed feedback to formative assessment

Minasian-Batmanian, L. C., Lingard, J. M., Melville, L.A., and Mahony, M. J.

Currently, greater use of criterion referencing and standards-based assessments is being encouraged by the University. To enable students to perceive the differences between grade levels, that is pass, credit and distinction/high distinction, mid- and end- semester multiple choice quizzes were designed and graded using the generic grade descriptors in their unit of study outline. The initial grading of question difficulty, as well as individual feedback for each alternative, was provided by the lecturer. Both elements were then iteratively reviewed by two other independent experts and refined until agreement was reached. These were incorporated into the online feedback provided for both the mid- and end-of-semester multiple choice formative assessments. The unique aspect of the present study is that in addition to detailed online feedback on content provided to each multiple choice alternative, feedback to students on how to learn to know what is expected of them (benchmarks), is provided to facilitate metacognitive learning.