Making the most of feedback for academic writing development in postgraduate research: Pilot of a combined programme for students and supervisors

Feedback from supervisors on written work is the primary tool for teaching writing in postgraduate research and is a pedagogical activity for academic writing development. Despite this, little effort is focussed on teaching supervisors to provide effective feedback, or students to understand and use this feedback (feedback literacy). Here we describe development and pilot of a novel, flexible combined programme to teach postgraduate research students and supervisors how to make the most of feedback on student writing. This online-supported programme, constructed using evidence-based educational design principles, significantly improved student and supervisor feedback literacy. Specifically, skills and experience in providing and responding to effective feedback were improved, along with an understanding of how to utilise feedback to achieve expected writing standards. We believe the strong theoretical basis underpinned success of our programme and propose that future expansion, tailored to specific cohort characteristics and needs, has the potential to improve the feedback process.