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Effective learning depends on effective feedback, which in turn requires a set of skills, dispositions and practices on the part of both students and teachers which have been termed "feedback literacy." A previously published teacher "feedback literacy competency framework" has identified what is needed by teachers to implement feedback well. While this framework refers in broad terms to the potential uses of educational technologies, it does not examine in detail the new possibilities of "automated feedback" (AF) tools, especially those that are open by offering varying degrees of transparency and control to teachers. Using analytics and artificial intelligence, open AF tools permit automated processing and feedback with a speed, precision and scale that exceeds that of humans. This raises important questions about how human and machine feedback can be combined optimally and what is now required of teachers to use such tools skillfully. The paper addresses two research questions: "Which teacher feedback competencies are necessary for the skilled use of open AF tools?" and "What does the skilled use of open AF tools add to our conceptions of teacher feedback competencies?" We conduct an analysis of published evidence concerning teachers' use of open AF tools through the lens of teacher feedback literacy, which produces summary matrices revealing relative strengths and weaknesses in the literature, and the relevance of the feedback literacy framework. We conclude firstly, that when used effectively, open AF tools exercise a range of teacher feedback competencies. The paper thus offers a detailed account of the nature of teachers' feedback literacy practices within this context. Secondly, this analysis reveals gaps in the literature, signalling opportunities for future work. Thirdly, we propose several examples of "automated feedback literacy," that is, distinctive teacher competencies linked to the skilled use of open AF tools.

If feedback is to be conducted effectively, then there needs to be clarity about what is involved and what is necessary for teachers to be able to undertake it well. While much attention has recently been devoted to student feedback literacy, less has been given to what is required of teaching staff in their various roles in feedback processes. This paper seeks to elucidate teacher feedback literacy through an analysis of the accounts of those who do feedback well. An inductive analysis was undertaken of conversations about feedback with 62 university teachers from five Australian universities using a dataset of transcripts of interviews and focus groups from two earlier research studies. Through an iterative process a teacher feedback literacy competency framework was developed which represents the competencies required of university teachers able to design and enact effective feedback processes. The paper discusses the different competencies required of those with different levels of responsibility, from overall course design to commenting on students' work. It concludes by considering implications for the professional development of university teachers in the area of feedback.

Feedback is powerful for learning in education, and the workplace. Work-integrated learning bridges these two settings, but how prepared students are to use feedback strategies as they enter the workplace remains unknown. This paper documents an exploratory, mixed-methods, study involving final-year occupational therapy students. The students were undertaking work-integrated learning to develop project management skills. The specific research questions addressed were; how feedback literate are final-year students; and, can feedback literacy (FL) education improve FL in preparation for the workplace? Likert scales, open response questions, and assessment rubrics were utilised. Opportunities for FL education were provided. Statistically significant differences between pre- and post-test survey responses were evident. Four qualitative themes were identified; enacting feedback, choice of feedback, emotional impact of feedback and value of the outsider perspective. Some students demonstrated sophisticated feedback capabilities. Others engaged tokenistically with feedback. Tentative support for the effectiveness of one FL intervention was demonstrated.

Assessment has multiple purposes, one of which is to judge if students have met outcomes at the requisite level. Underperformance in assessment is frequently positioned as a problem of the student and attributed to student diversity and/or background characteristics. However, the assessment might also be inequitable and therefore exclude students inappropriately. To be inclusive, assessment design needs to be reconsidered, and educators should look beyond simplistic categories of disability or social equity groups, towards considering and accounting for diversity on many spectra. This article introduces the concept of "assessment for inclusion," which seeks to ensure diverse students are not disadvantaged through assessment practices. Assumptions in assessment design are problematised from this point of view, and three central concerns relating to assessment traditions, assessment expectations, and academic integrity are interrogated. Contemporary design strategies of authentic assessment, programmatic assessment, and assessment for distinctiveness are then harnessed to illustrate approaches to assessment for inclusion. Assessment for inclusion therefore builds on the synergies between inclusive practice and good assessment design.

It is becoming apparent that generative AI has significant implications for education. However, previous technologies that have had a large impact, such as calculators, do not provide a suitable model for understanding how generative AI can and will be used in learning. Drawing on research on human-computer interactions, we map out a typology of possible student-to-generative AI relationships to afford a more nuanced discussion about what these new technologies can and should be used for in learning. Our contribution in this article is to offer a typology for considering the range of possible interactions across two dimensions of relationships. In doing so, we argue that there is not a single metaphor for the relationship between humans and AI in learning, but many.

Increasing pressure is being placed on governments and legislators in different countries to take action against assignment outsourcing in higher education. Global discussions focus on prohibiting commercial outsourcing providers, such as contract cheating services. Despite evidence to suggest that outsourcing behaviours by students are increasing, and the number/reach of companies is increasing, little research has been undertaken to explore whether legislation will deter or prevent students from engaging in these dishonest behaviours. We investigated the issue of legality with higher education students, asking about their peers and their own assignment outsourcing behaviours, whether they believed such companies were already illegal, or whether they thought they should be illegal. Using quantitative analysis, responses from 7126 international participants were considered. We found that some students outsourced their assignments whether they thought it was illegal or not. Further, the majority of respondents argued that students should be impacted by any legislation, as well as the companies that provide outsourced work. The study presents evidence which should be considered in determining whether any law may have an effect to reduce assignment outsourcing behaviours in higher education students.

Feedback is a term used so frequently that it is commonly taken that there is a shared view about what it means. However, in recent years, the notion of feedback as simply the provision of information to students about their work has been substantially challenged and learning-centred views have been articulated. This paper employs a corpus linguistics approach to analyse the use of the term 'feedback' in research articles published in key higher education journals on the topic over two five-year periods: 2009-2013 and 2015-2019. Analysis focused on the most common noun modifiers of 'feedback' and nouns modified by 'feedback', verbs with 'feedback' as the object, possessors of 'feedback', and prepositions representing an action or concept on or with 'feedback'. Whilst the analysis demonstrated that transmission-focused conceptions dominate publications on feedback, linguistic signifiers of a shift over time in representation of feedback away from a transmission-focus towards a learning-focus were evident within each grammatical relation category. The data indicate that the term 'feedback' is used by different authors to refer to very different representations of the concept, and the paper proposes that greater clarity in the representation of feedback is needed.

When students graduate, they cannot rely on educators telling them if their work is good enough. To do so, they need well-developed evaluative judgement, the capability to make decisions about the quality of their own and the work of others. There is little evidence about the specific approaches that can develop evaluative judgement--or how to study those approaches. Understanding how to research evaluative judgement in the context of pedagogical activities is essential to advance both research and practice. This paper explores how to research evaluative judgement within the context of a longitudinal reflective diary kept by first-year students in a built environment course. Students were required to observe construction and managerial processes on worksites and record these in their reflective diaries. Thematic analysis was conducted on a dataset comprising approximately 290 pages of text. Our analysis suggests it is possible to observe students' evaluative judgement even in some tasks that are not specifically designed to evidence it. Recommendations are made about improving the design and implementation of assessment tasks with the inclusion of reflective practices and dialogue as key enablers of the development and therefore research of evaluative judgement.

Feedback can occur before and after assessment submission, but needs to be useful in order for students to improve their subsequent performance. Arguably, undergraduate students, and particularly international, online and new students, are especially in need of feedback to effectively engage in academic and disciplinary expectations. Therefore, this article draws on survey data from students, disaggregated by mode of study, citizenship of enrolment and year of study, to explore their experiences of feedback usefulness both before and after assessment submission. Overall, undergraduate students were positive; however, this perception decreased according to their year level. Comparisons between online and international students also revealed key differences. A conclusion is that undergraduate students cannot be treated homogeneously, and educators need to attend to the feedback experiences of different student groups as they progress through their programme.

Students enrolled in university courses often lack knowledge of potential jobs and future career paths, which can inhibit their ability to plan, job seek and make decisions about their careers, and negatively impact on their ability to gain employment. To address this problem, a tailored, career-focused interactive online learning tool was developed and piloted for public health and exercise science students, based on the constructs of Savickas' (2005) theory of career construction. This paper reports a mixed-methods study to understand student experiences of using that tool, and their perception of how well it prepared them for career planning. Twenty-two second-year students completed an online survey using both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the perceived feasibility and acceptability of the interactive online learning tool. Descriptive (for quantitative data) and inductive content analyses (for qualitative data) were performed. Most students (86%) indicated that they would use the tool again. All students reported that the tool was user-friendly, engaging and informative and provided them with information on jobs that matched their personal and work-related skills and strengths. Qualitative data reflected these findings and identified seven key themes, including: value, career exploration, design, and tailoring, with themes partly reflecting components of Savicka's theory. The tailored, career-focused interactive online learning tool was perceived to be a feasible and effective strategy to support university students in their career planning and job seeking behaviours prior to graduation. These findings can be used to inform and refine the development of career-focused tools for students undertaking other university courses.

Students use various licit and illicit substances to enhance their academic performance. As yet, no study has explored whether this is an issue of concern for those working in the higher education sector. This study aimed to explore study drug policy, regulatory environments and responses within Australian universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants from five Australian universities. Nine participants were based in school/department, faculty, or institutional head of teaching and learning roles; six participants were in student support roles. Eight participants had direct teaching experience. Three themes emerged from the data analysis. Study drug use was seen as a health problem rather than a threat to academic integrity. Participants believed that attributes of the university setting may facilitate study drug use, but also considered that some attributes may prevent the uptake of use, such as a stronger emphasis on universities promoting the benefits of a balanced lifestyle.

How can learners be supported to engage productively in the kinds of feedback practices they may encounter after they graduate? This article introduces a novel concept of authentic feedback to denote processes which resemble the feedback practices of the discipline, profession or workplace. Drawing on the notion of authentic assessment, a framework for authentic feedback is proposed with five dimensions: realism, cognitive challenge, affective challenge, evaluative judgement and enactment of feedback. This framework is exemplified and interrogated through two cases of authentic feedback practice, one in the subject of digital media in an Australian university, the other focussed on bedside rounds in medicine at a university in Hong Kong. The framework enables the identification of both highly authentic aspects of feedback, and aspects that could be made more authentic. The framework informs the design of feedback practices that carry the potential to bridge university and workplace environments.

Flipped classroom has become a popular buzzword in the post-secondary education setting, and it is one of the most visible trends in smart learning environments. Alongside this popularisation comes the view that the flipped classroom is something desirable. Yet, many educators remain divided over whether flipped classroom is really an improvement over traditional approaches. This paper is the first to synthesise all relevant meta-analytic information using a second-order meta-analysis approach on the effectiveness of the flipped classroom on student learning outcomes. By synthesising the findings of multiple primary meta-analyses instead of individual empirical studies, a second-order meta-analysis can more accurately account for publication bias and generate a more robust result. The present study synthesised and analysed the quality of 15 primary meta-analyses that involved 156,722 participants in flipped and non-flipped conditions to provide the most exhaustive test of the flipped classroom approach on its effect on student learning outcomes in higher education to date. The mean random effect size, after trim-and-fill adjustment, was 0.37, p < 0.001 in support of flipped classrooms. To check the accuracy of the second-order meta-analysis results, we performed a study-level meta-analytic validation. We discuss possible contextual and methodological moderators.

In the business disciplines, there is a disconnection between what employers expect graduates to do and what graduates are actually able to do. Limited research has been done on the interfaces of professionals' aspirations, university instructors' enactment, and university learners' experiences. To address this well-felt gap, we conducted a series of interviews with employers in the industry and designed a peer-assessment loop consisting of rubrics co-construction, rubric-guided learning and performance, rubric-referenced peer review, and rubric-referenced reflection in a university course. Learners' views on and experiences in the assessment processes were explored through analysing their written reflections. The paper provides an empirical example of designing and enacting signature assessment. The design of case-based peer assessment loops with co-constructed rubrics mirrors the operational genres, cognitive challenges, and emotional dynamics of business professional practices. Researching the benefits and challenges of this assessment design contributes to sustaining student learning in and beyond higher education.

Respect plays a crucial role in maintaining feedback interactions and sustaining student engagement with feedback. However, previous feedback literature has only mentioned respect in anecdotal accounts, and as a unidimensional notion. Drawing upon the philosophical distinctions among kinds of respect, this conceptual paper argues that respect is multi-faceted and constitutes an important aspect of student feedback literacy. We identify "evaluative," "directive" and "care" respect as three essential kinds of respect in the co-constructive process of feedback. "Institutional" and "obstacle" respect also influence learners' knowing, being and acting in feedback interactions. The feeling of disrespect arises when there are tensions over respect-related perceptions and practices between people with different roles. As educators, we can promote respect in feedback through facilitating dialogues in the co-constructive process, minimising cues of disrespect resulting from tensions around learners' interpretation, expectation or embodiment of respect, and nurturing a safe space to reflect on and practice respect.

While there is now extensive research on informal feedback seeking behaviour by employees in organisations, this literature has received limited attention in higher education. This paper addresses the gap between the two fields of feedback literacy and feedback seeking behaviour. Key organisational feedback seeking behaviour concepts including employee intentions in seeking feedback, the practice of weighing costs and benefits before seeking feedback, the qualities sought in potential feedback providers, feedback seeker characteristics that influence feedback seeking behaviour, and a range of feedback seeking methods and outcomes are outlined and their potential implications for feedback literacy are considered. The paper draws on feedback seeking behaviour literature to propose a research agenda for establishing a stronger and more nuanced understanding of feedback literacy in higher education.

To progress with their learning, students need to be able to make judgements about the quality of their own work and the work of others. This capability is known as evaluative judgement. The importance of evaluative judgement is well-established, but environments in which learners practice this capability remain unknown. This paper explores whether learners practice evaluative judgement within qualitative self-assessment. We conducted a thematic analysis of students' qualitative self-assessments from years one, three and four of construction management and building surveying courses and analysed approximately 430 pages of text. Our analysis indicated that learners often practised evaluative judgement during qualitative self-assessment even when such pedagogical activity was not specifically designed for this purpose. While constructing their professional knowledge, learners made evaluations of the quality of work, their own and the work of others. Based on our findings, we recommend that qualitative self-assessment is embedded within curricula to enable learners to practice evaluative judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractCheating attracts a significant amount of attention in conversations about assessment, and with good reason: if students cheat, we cannot be sure they have met the learning outcomes of their course. In this conceptual article we question the attention given to cheating as a concept and argue that the broader concept of validity is a more important concern. We begin by questioning what cheating is, why it is wrong, and how justifiable the approaches used to address cheating are. We then propose a reframing of cheating as subsumed by assessment validity. In this view, cheating is addressed without moralising, as part of the broader positive mission of assurance of learning. This perspective highlights how attempts to improve validity by addressing cheating can sometimes make validity worse, for example when an anti-cheating technology reduces cheating but creates problems for inclusion. In shifting focus from cheating to validity, we hope to draw renewed attention to what matters most in assessment: that we know our graduates are capable of what we say they are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contract cheating happens when students outsource their assessed work to a third party. One approach that has been suggested for improving contract cheating detection is comparing students' assignment submissions with their previous work, the rationale being that changes in style may indicate a piece of work has been written by somebody else. This approach is time consuming, but recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing suggest that it may be well suited to computerization. We trialed an early alpha version of Turnitin's Authorship Investigate tool, which compares students' submissions against their previous work. Twenty-four experienced markers from five units of study were asked to make decisions about the presence of contract cheating in bundles of 20 student assignments, which included 14 legitimate assignments and six purchased from contract cheating sites. We asked markers to determine if each assignment was contract cheating, then provided them with an Authorship Investigate report and let them change their decision. Marker accuracy at detecting contract cheating increased significantly, from 48% to 59% after using the report, with no significant difference in false positives. These findings suggest that software may be an effective component of institutional strategies to address contract cheating.

Developing leadership in students is part of the remit of higher education institutions. In recent decades, student leadership development programs have proliferated at universities worldwide. However, the contested understanding of the term 'leadership' has resulted in lack of clarity regarding how this may be 'developed' in higher education. There are many programs that contribute towards developing leadership in students and not all of them do so explicitly. Moreover, in the absence of clear conceptual underpinnings and pedagogic approaches, it is questionable whether these programs can deliver the graduate capabilities employers are increasingly expecting. Recognising this diversity and range of different understandings of leadership that underpin these programs, this paper presents an overarching inclusive framework that provides guidelines to support quality assurance across the broad range of leadership development initiatives in higher education. The paper describes the development of the framework, explains its core components and provides an illustration of it.

Contract cheating happens when students commission someone else to do assessed work for them. While it is already illegal in 18 jurisdictions, others are considering making the provision of contract cheating services illegal. To date, legal approaches to addressing contract cheating have faced little scrutiny in the peer reviewed literature. This article outlines some challenges with the legal approach to combating contract cheating. To this end it examines a segment of the contract cheating market to determine if contractors operate in localities where contract cheating services have been made illegal. The results suggest that contractors operate in plain sight, offering services to and from localities where services are prohibited by law. On the basis of the current challenges with enforcement of legal rules, this article recommends some alternative strategies for addressing contract cheating.

First-year university students' underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students' perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students' perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers' classes. Findings highlight that fostering students' academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers' goals of developing learners' academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective 'card' played by teachers to nurture students' appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective--especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student's own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.

Students' capacity for making evaluative judgements of their own work is widely acknowledged as central to their learning within programmes as well as being vital to their subsequent professional practice. In higher education literature, the act of evaluative judgement is usually portrayed as a process of deliberative, analytical reasoning requiring student agency and objectivity, typically scaffolded by points of reference such as explicit criteria, rubrics or exemplars. This article challenges this common portrayal of judgement by drawing attention to research from outside higher education on the role of unconscious factors in judgement and decision-making. Drawing from the field of heuristics and bias studies, the article outlines six unconscious factors that have the potential to distort students' analytical judgement of their work. A recent challenge to the heuristics and bias approach that radically repositions the place of reasoning in judgement is also considered. Since these unconscious factors have received scant attention in higher education literature, the purpose of this article is to draw attention to them, to identify the challenges they pose to current understandings of evaluative judgement, and to outline their implications for enhancing assessment practice.

Contract cheating occurs when students outsource assessed work. In this study, we asked experienced markers from four disciplines to detect contract cheating in a set of 20 discipline-specific assignments. We then conducted a training workshop to improve their detection accuracy, and afterwards asked them to detect contract cheating in 20 new assignments. We analysed the data in terms of sensitivity (the rate at which markers spotted contract cheating) and specificity (the rate at which markers spotted real student work). Pre-workshop marker sensitivity was 58% and specificity was 83%. Post-workshop marker sensitivity was 82% and specificity was 87%. The increase in sensitivity was statistically significant, but the increase in specificity was not. These results indicate that markers can often detect contract cheating when asked to do so, and that training may be helpful in improving their accuracy. We suggest that markers' suspicions may be crucial in addressing contract cheating.

Despite an increasing focus on assessment feedback, educators continue to find that simply replicating an effective feedback practice from one context does not guarantee success in the next. There is a growing recognition that the contextual factors surrounding successful practices need to be considered. This article reports on a large-scale mixed methods project and proposes 12 conditions that enable successful feedback in higher education. The conditions were distilled from seven rich case studies through multiple stages of thematic analysis, case comparison and reliability checking. The conditions were also evaluated by surveying senior leaders of Australian universities. These conditions highlight the importance of carefully designing feedback processes, along with the need for addressing capacity and culture for feedback. This helps to explain why there are such variances in effective feedback across contexts, and offers insight into how it may be achieved.

Increasing significance has been ascribed to student engagement, as a measure of success of both teachers and programs. However, since users of the term commonly tend not to explain, rationalise or problematise their understanding of engagement, its value to understand or transform learning may be limited. While clarification has occurred in conceptual work, there is a lack of empirical work that extends beyond understandings of engagement-as-behaviour, as well as insufficient work exploring what students understand engagement to be. Further, much work on engagement is rooted in physical campuses and face-to-face delivery, which represents an incomplete picture of how students actually engage in study. This article investigates student perceptions of engagement in two blended learning Initial Teacher Education programs. It offers a critical discussion of how research can be re-considered in light of changing learning contexts and changing understandings of ways to investigate engagement. The findings of this study support previous work that found multiple levels and meanings of student engagement exist. New complex and multidimensional models of engagement are proposed, which can open new possibilities for designing studies and analysing findings. This article argues that including and questioning physical, virtual and political contexts and power, affect, relationships, linearity and essential measurability are important features of new models of engagement.

For over 30 years, the notion of authentic assessment in higher education has been adopted in academic practice, but it has managed to escape substantial critique. Although there have been multiple definitions and operationalisations of authentic assessment, current practice tends to foreground mimicking of work tasks. Authenticity cannot be completely unmoored from the reality of workplaces, the demands of the discipline, and the overall intended learning outcomes, however, a restricted view of how these aspects are represented in assessment can limit the sector's ability to prepare graduates who can engage with and shape the changing world. This paper elaborates the multiple challenges that some conceptualisations of authentic assessment contribute to assessment planning, recognising that assessment design always requires compromise. Three theoretical perspectives on authenticity are introduced to open new possibilities for authenticity in assessment. These are (1) psychological authenticity; (2) ontological fidelity; and (3) practice theory perspectives. The final section discusses how learning design might offer a means to operationalise theory. The paper concludes by suggesting that authenticity in assessment continues to hold value for the sector beyond its current uses through stronger theoretical conceptualisation and operationalisation of authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback can be powerful, but its effects are dependent on what students do. There has been intensive research in recent years under the banner of 'feedback literacy' to understand how to help students make the most of feedback. Although there are instruments to measure feedback literacy, they largely measure perceptions and orientations rather than what learners actually do. This paper documents the development and validation of the Feedback Literacy Behaviour Scale (FLBS), which is a self-report instrument intended to measure students' feedback behaviours. A framework for feedback literacy was constructed with five factors: Seek Feedback information (SF), Make Sense of information (MS), Use Feedback information (UF), Provide Feedback information (PF), and Manage Affect (MA). An initial set of 45 questions were reviewed in an iterative process by feedback experts, resulting in 39 questions that were trialled with 350 student participants from four countries. Our final survey of 24 questions was generally supported by confirmatory factor and Rasch analyses, and has acceptable test-retest reliability. The FLBS provides a more robust way for educators and researchers to capture behavioural indicators of feedback literacy and the impact of interventions to improve it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]