Improving Students With Rubric-Based Self-Assessment and Oral Feedback

TL;DR

This study evaluates how rubric-based self-assessment and oral feedback impact student learning in a requirements engineering course, showing they improve outcomes and reduce grade-related inquiries, though not drastically.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of rubrics and oral feedback in enhancing student performance and reducing complaints in higher education.

Findings

Both approaches led to statistically significant improvements.

Rubrics decreased complaints and questions about grades.

No material grade improvements were observed.

Abstract

Rubrics and oral feedback are approaches to help students improve performance and meet learning outcomes. However, their effect on the actual improvement achieved is inconclusive. This paper evaluates the effect of rubrics and oral feedback on student learning outcomes. An experiment was conducted in a software engineering course on requirements engineering, using the two approaches in course assignments. Both approaches led to statistically significant improvements, though no material improvement (i.e., a change by more than one grade) was achieved. The rubrics led to a significant decrease in the number of complaints and questions regarding grades.