Student Reflection to Improve Access to Standards-Based Grading Feedback

In this Research-to-Practice Full Paper, two different reflection prompts in the form of unstructured and structured reflections were implemented in an engineering course to guide students towards improved self-regulated learning behaviors, specifically accessing feedback on their assignments. The course setting for this study employed standards-based grading (SBG) which provides rich feedback on students' proficiency with the course learning objectives. Low student access to feedback, delivered through a learning management system (LMS), was seen as a considerable learning opportunity loss. Negative binomial regression models were used to investigate whether semester (2016 or 2017) and refection (presence or absence) had an impact on the (1) number of days students accessed the LMS gradebook or rubrics, (2) the number of times students accessed the gradebook to view grades, or (3) the number of times students accessed rubrics to view feedback. Semester, which relates to implementation changes in the SBG system, significantly increased students’ number of days of access and number of gradebook and rubric accesses. Reflection, particularly structured reflection, significantly improved students’ access to the rubrics. Pairing reflection with a well-developed SBG system has the potential to improve students’ access to feedback.