Meeting rising student expectations of online assignment submission and online feedback

Students at Sheffield Hallam University are increasingly demanding the ability to submit assignments online and to receive feedback and their marks online. A key theme of the University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment strategy (2006-2010) is “to enhance the students’ learning experience, making assessment activities, support and feedback a powerful integrated feature of learning”. Students will be encouraged to reflect on feedback to “enhance their on-going learner development through timely and effective feedback”. This short paper will explore how the University is currently working to meet its students’ expectations for online assignment submission and online feedback, through the development of a new Blackboard Building Block that supports the flexible submission of student assignments and the timely delivery of feedback online.