Assignments and Feedback

Our assignments are developmental which means that they are designed to give us a 'snapshot' into your student's progress at that particular point in their learning journey. Assignments come with a grade, but we place more emphasis on the feedback that you will receive from your tutor, as this is what will help your student move on in their learning. There are more tips about this further down.

Steps to take when completing an assignment

• Firstly, in order to access your assignment, you will need to make sure that you have completed the ‘prerequisites’ (something that is required before something else can happen). For example, you can see in the image below that the quiz needs to be completed before the assignment is unlocked for you to complete. You can find out more about this on the Guide to Canvas.

• Before completing an assignment, you will need to print it out and read the instructions carefully with your student. You will notice that there is some important assignment information to check through in the link above the assignment, and an assignment reflection sheet, which your student is invited to complete and submit with the assignment, to help them reflect on the work they have done.

• Note that your student's assignments should be handwritten in black ink or written with a digital stylus unless otherwise stated.
• Assignments are not tests or exams! We do not recommend setting a time limit for your student to complete them, for example, and they need not be done in silence. We want all students to be working at a pace that is right for them. It might be that your student completes the assignment in 'chunks' over the course of a day, or even over multiple days if needed.
• We do ask that as much work that your student does in their assignments is done as independently as possible, so that your tutor can shape their feedback according to what they see in the assignment. Where your child needs help, it would be useful to perhaps make a note of this on the assignment itself, or by sending a brief submission comment when you submit the assignment.

If you have any questions along the way, especially if you are new to Wolsey Hall, do make sure that you contact your SPM or tutor who will be able to answer any questions you may have on this process.

Feedback

Within five days from submitting your student's assignment, you will receive a notification to let you know that your assignment has been marked. When you look at your assignment feedback, make sure that you check the PDF on SpeedGrader (it may have been annotated by your tutor) as well as the general comments your tutor has given you (these may be written and/or an audio/video message).

Feedback is organised into Areas of strength and Next steps. Your tutor will identify the things that your child is making good progress with, and those one or two things that will help them make even better progress.

Please do take time to sit and reflect on feedback from your tutor. This is a key part of the Wolsey Hall Oxford course as the feedback will be personal and tailored entirely to your student. The feedback is designed to help them further both their knowledge and skills in the subject. 

Suggestions for how to reflect on feedback with your student:

1. Sit down and look through the feedback together (or you may want to look at it ahead of your student), celebrating the Areas of strength and recognising what has gone well in the assignment and the past few weeks of learning.

2. Focus next on the Next step(s) that your tutor has identified. Put aside some time to work on these. Types of Next steps from your tutor may include:

• looking over any corrections or mistakes in the assignment and talking about these with your student.
• a challenge to extend your student's learning, e.g. some ideas to research further, an extra resource attached to your feedback, or a website link.
• watching a video given to you in your feedback, to help your student understand something a little better.
• practising a skill which is recognised, in response to the assignment, as being ongoing, e.g. drawing angles in maths; practising phonics sounds for reading.

You or your student may wish for them to attempt their assignment again based on the tutor's feedback. Whilst this approach is commendable, we do not ask you to do this. Instead, please take on board the feedback provided for future learning. (Please be aware that you will not be able to resubmit the assignment as we only permit one marked submission of each assignment).