When I got the chance to attend and complete the UNSW Course Design Institute (CDI) in 2022, I took the opportunity to reflect on and engage with the material, facilitators and peers on how I could best introduce an activity into my course, Neuroscience Fundamentals (NEUR2201), that would not only increase student engagement with the rubric for their group project, but also allow for tutor feedback mid-through the assessment.

The group project requires students to find an interesting neuroscience media article, critically evaluate it against a set of criteria and delve deeper into the topic by searching and finding relevant scientific literature. The groups then write a Wiki on the topic. Initial feedback on the topic and the workplan is provided to the groups in week 2 of term. They then submit the Wiki in week 7. The challenge has always been on how to provide feedback on their progress and encourage the students to use the marking rubric as a guide when developing their Wiki, rather than looking at the rubric just before submission of the assessment. During the CDI, I was inspired by Dr. Jennifer Thomas (A/Prof in Music, University of Florida) and the feedback task she uses for large courses. This led to me designing and incorporating a group self-assessment activity in week 5’s tutorial with tutor feedback in week 6 ahead of assessment submission in week 7. The self-assessment allowed students to reflect on the quality of their Wiki group project by engaging with the marking rubric. It also provided the group with tutor feedback with identified issues being able to be addressed ahead of submission deadline.

The following comments are evidence that the feedback provided by the convenors was one of the best things about the course: ‘…very receptive feedback from convenors…’, ‘The course coordinators are really helpful in giving explanations and feedbacks…’. Unsolicited student feedback during the tutorial activity also supported this, e.g. one group said they felt less anxious completing the Wiki after having confirmed their progress using the marking rubric.

Overall, the quality of the group projects increased, and fewer groups missed out on marks that are easily achievable by following the rubric. Furthermore, the overall mean myExperience score for ‘The feedback helped me learn’ was 5.41 (100% agree broad) in 2022, and 4.97 (97.4% agree broad) in 2023.

The implementation of innovative teaching designs has seen the course myExperience mean score for ‘Overall satisfaction’ increase from 4.6 (2020) to 5.32 (2021; first year as convenor), 5.49 (2022) and 5.16 (2023).