Students' and teachers' views of written feedback at undergraduate level: a literature review

Objectives: To explore undergraduate students' expectations and teachers' views of written feedback.

Design: Narrative literature review.

Data sources: Seven electronic databases were searched for primary research published in English with additional manual searches and reference tracking.

Review methods: Systematic approach to search strategy, selection and appraisal of papers, data extraction and synthesis following Hawker et al.'s (2002) guidelines.

Results: 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. Four student themes were identified concerning written feedback: quality, quantity and location of feedback, feed-forward and timeliness. Teachers reported that time pressures, institutional policies, and administrative issues affect feedback provision.

Conclusions: Rigorous research is needed to gain a better understanding of students' expectations of written feedback. Strategies need to be adopted to meet students' expectations and educate students to take an active role and reflect on the feedback received.