Students produce high volumes of writing that require faculty review. Nursing faculty typically provide feedback to nursing students on written work by marking a paper either manually or electronically. This method may fail to provide the student with adequate context of the intended meaning of the feedback, making interpretation difficult.1 Revisions can be more problematic, students may be confused about how to revise the paper, and learning progression of work may not be optimal. In the literature, students report that written remarks are better understood when coupled with audio feedback.2 They express high regard for feedback personalization.2-5 Faculty may not be familiar with utilization of digital audio recordings for feedback. The purpose of this article is to discuss practical tips gleaned from literature and personal experience about use of audio feedback to accompany written remarks on writing assignments for nursing students. This strategy has potential to improve student satisfaction by creating a stronger classroom presence and offering clearer and more meaningful and personalized learning experience.6
Tip #1: Selection of Technology and Assignments
Faculty members should first consider preferred technology for audio feedback. The author recommends using technology that is easily accessible and used frequently. For example, some learning management systems have built-in features for audio recordings. If faculty frequently use a given learning platform, investigate the audio options. Audio recording features are also standard in many Microsoft and Apple products. Faculty also can make the decision to combine audio and visual for a movie recording of their computer screen to review a written document using iMovie, QuickTime, or other accessible software.3,7 Ultimately, the goal is to generate an audio and/or audiovisual file to complement the traditional written remarks on a paper.
Assignment selection is also critical. Audio feedback may not be useful for all assignments. Audio feedback may be most helpful for larger, progressive, or milestone-type assignments, such as a prelicensure program capstone project, master's thesis, doctor of nursing practice (DNP) project proposal, or a dissertation chapter. It allows students to review the comments repeatedly, at their own pace, and with the added benefit of audio annotation. This has potential to improve learning and student engagement.5,6 Although faculty may worry about the demand of time to execute both audio and written feedback, the literature suggests that it does not significantly increase time burdens of faculty members.2 In fact, the author finds it to be time-saving because students have better potential to make corrections on their own with the guidance provided in the audio file. In turn, when student meetings occur, they are more purposeful, rich, and less focused on minor details.
Tip #2: Develop a Script to Standardized Feedback
After the faculty member has marked a writing assignment, it is best to record audio feedback immediately. To start, simply read written remarks aloud and consider minor elaboration for context. Recording immediately after finishing written remarks ensures that the feedback intent is easily recalled. The feedback can be easily and quickly spoken aloud for recording. Generally, limiting each file to less than 3 to 5 minutes is ideal. An example of a recording to provide audio feedback on a student's paper is included in Supplemental Digital Content, http://links.lww.com/NE/A628. On larger writing assignments, consider breaking up the audio feedback in sections, for example, following the headings or outline of the paper. This technique will help to keep the audio file size small and enable a student to download the file more quickly.
As feedback is recorded, the faculty could use a standardized script to orient the student and ensure that critical information is included (Table 1). Table 2 is an example of using this script. The script can be modified based on the assignment and context.
Tip #3: Storage of Audio Files
When the audio feedback is complete, the faculty member should carefully label the syntax of the audio file. The syntax may include the assignment date, student's last name, and other organizational identifiers. Faculty members should refer to their institutional policies on storage of media. Files may need to be retained until final grades for the course are assigned or until the student completes the program. Consideration should be given to the potential utilization of audio files for purposes of academic appeals and other academic proceedings. The author recommends maintaining the audio files in the learning platform if it is used for a course. If the feedback is given outside of course context, such as on a DNP project or dissertation, and then the audio component should be stored in the same location as other related scholarly files.
Student Perspective
A 6-question debriefing survey on use of audio feedback was collected from graduate nursing students (n = 31) on large writing assignments (longer than 6 pages) at 2 different universities. Quick Time was used to create audio feedback files, and the files were then uploaded to the learning management system for the student to review with the PDF of their document containing the instructor's written remarks. The purpose of the debriefing questions was to assess the student perspective of faculty use of audio feedback, using the script described earlier, while following along with written remarks.
Results of the debriefing indicated that only 1 student had previous audio feedback from a faculty member. The majority of students (83% [n = 26]) reported confusion in the past when faculty returned only written remarks on their assignments, and 35% (n = 11) had to schedule appointments with faculty for clarification. All students found the audio feedback helpful coupled with the written remarks, and all requested that it be used in future courses. One student remarked, "it's faster, and the intent of the feedback is clear." Another student added, "I get a better sense of my instructors' response to my work through the nuances of verbal communication, much more than written comments only." Students further articulated during debriefing an appreciation for precise description of point deductions, the ability to follow along with the written paper, and overall that the feedback was more meaningful.
Conclusion
In summary, nursing students in this debriefing valued audio feedback given in addition to written comments on writing assignments. Faculty should explore available technology, use a standardize script when providing student feedback, and plan for proper storage of audio files. The findings in this debriefing survey are consistent with findings in the literature, in which students express a desire for feedback in both written and audio format. Faculty may find time-saving benefits when students have the ability to review their work more independently. Most importantly, audio feedback can enhance the student learning experience.
References