With student intake highly dependent on National Student Survey results, student satisfaction is essential for reputation, retention and success. As educators move to a more virtual landscape, maintaining student satisfaction will be high on the agenda for medical and dental schools. In addition, many prospective students will be considering whether to defer until normal campus life has resumed. With this in mind it’s more relevant than ever to ensure that students feel engaged with the digitalisation of higher education, and are exposed to the benefits, such as access to prompt and useful feedback following their summative exams.
Why do students like good exam feedback?
Students thrive when receiving detailed feedback from tutors. Personalised feedback gives students the attention they need to improve their learning and revision. It is of particular significance for students sitting summative exams remotely, to ensure they have a comprehensive picture of their results, and are fully informed on areas that need work – keeping them on track for academic success. Feedback for summative exams also provides students with a clear record of how they have improved year-on-year, showing how their education has evolved over time. In essence candidates find feedback motivating, and look forward to viewing it as soon as it’s available.
What does good exam feedback look like?
Students want to see a clear and custom-made summary of what they’re doing well and where they need to improve. This can include areas of the curriculum, certain topics and cognitive domains. For example, their knowledge of a subject may be good, but their ability to apply that knowledge needs work. With this information the student will know where to focus revision efforts for future exams. For examiner-facing exams such as OSCEs, feedback which includes examiner comments on the student’s performance can be vital to the student’s future success.
Why timing is important?
Reducing stress around exam time is conducive to student’s mental wellbeing. The quicker results and feedback can be delivered to students, the sooner they will be able to move on and look ahead, fully informed on what they need to work on. With a digital system it’s possible to get results and feedback generated within minutes of taking the exam. Exam digitalisation also means that candidates can log in to view feedback or receive it as an email, making the process instantaneous.
In Conclusion
At Maxinity we’ve seen time and time again how the benefits of using Maxexam to deliver prompt and detailed feedback are experienced by staff and students alike. For staff, processes are improved and time is saved. For the students, they receive prompt and efficient service.
“There have been so many advantages of using Maxexam for our OSCEs. For us, probably the biggest advantage is the benefit it provides to our students in terms of feedback. We are now able to provide quicker, better feedback to our students which we are confident will lead to higher levels of student satisfaction with their courses.”
University of Nottingham
The importance of students feeling stimulated by the digitalisation of their higher education experience is imperative for student satisfaction. If you would like to chat through with us whether Maxexam might be able to work for your organisation, please do not hesitate to give us a call on +44 (0)117 428 0550.
