Exploring the possibilities of automated feedback for third level students

There are a multitude of methods of providing third level students with feedback on their performance. Feedback can take many forms, from handwritten comments, to individual verbal feedback delivered face to face, and some educators are providing recorded audio feedback delivered using an institutional Virtual Learning Environment. One of the challenges at third level is providing substantive and constructive formative and/or terminal feedback in a timely fashion. Students are becoming more self-directed in terms of their learning and they are becoming more demanding regarding feedback. This paper discusses the use of a free open source solution (Auto Multiple Choice, AMC) to provide constructive feedback to students in an effective and timely manner. This method of automated assessment feedback has been used by faculty in Physics at the University of Limerick to reduce the turnaround time in making comments available to students since 2014. The experience of using AMC has also resulted in a number of unanticipated results around student motivation and prediction of exam performance which are also discussed.