"For many of us, we start our teaching careers in higher education being ‘thrown in at the deep end’ being almost immediately immersed in preparing and delivering lectures, creating assessments, running laboratories and tutorials, marking student’s work, etc., without having had the opportunity to learn how to tackle such challenges. While a huge amount of research exists on teaching, learning, assessment and feedback, very few of us, especially in the first weeks of teaching, have the time or energy to invest in getting familiar with this research. The aim of this resource to present some of the most useful and relevant tips, ideas and tactics from the literature to help you cope well with those first few critical elements of your work in teaching in higher education. This resource is based on a resource developed by Prof Phil Race at Leeds Beckett University in 2006, which was subsequently made available as an Open Educational Resource through Creative Commons, and has been revised for Munster Technological University (MTU), with support and guidance from Marese Bermingham (Head, AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office; Head, Teaching and Learning Unit; Head, Arts Office) of MTU Cork Campuses and Prof Sally Brown, Emerita Professor, Leeds Beckett University, Visiting Professor at University of Plymouth, Liverpool John Moores University, Edge Hill University and University of South Wales"

Assessors complain that they spend hours devising and delivering good feedback via comments on assessed work, in class, in studio critiques, on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in one-to-ones and in tutorials, only to find that students seem to either ignore the formative comments or complain they never get any feedback. If students ignore or trivialise our feedback, it cannot help them however detailed and supportive it is. Students’ failure to engage with feedback not only is unhelpful to them and frustrating for us, but also impacts negatively on Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE) scores.

Students put great store by the comments we put on their work. They often come to higher education with high expectations about the nature and value of teacher comments, and look to them to provide them with authoritative guidance on their learning and performance. Where that provision is found wanting, unhelpful or unconstructive, students rapidly become disenchanted, disappointed and alienated.