Giving feedback with a kick

Degree programme: Languages

Description

KungFu Writing (KFW) is a cloud-based feedback system, which opens possibilities to give structured, reusable and community feedback to student texts. The system is particularly suitable for teachers teaching languages at secondary and higher levels.

The development of a feedback tool was started from needs of the Aalto University Language Centre teachers. Today the tool has been adopted into teaching outside Aalto. In the spring of 2013 the system had 100 + teachers, 2500 +students and > 100 000 + items of feedback had been given.

Compared with other feedback methods, such as pen-and-paper approach or using a word processing software (eg Word), KFW offers a number of benefits for teachers and students. The teacher is be able to provide feedback quickly and efficiently using dynamic, reusable templates directly from the database. In addition, KFW offers the possibility for cooperation with colleagues in the use of standardized comments collaboratively. The system has a built-in statistics feature, it helps teachers monitor and develop the course as time goes by. Using the compare tools and statistics together helps teachers in giving the real-time feedback when giving contact teaching. Students benefit from the increased amount of higher quality and more detailed feedback. The system allows media and hyper-linking into the comments. The feedback provides an easier way to access to larger datasets to correct errors in the text. Students can also easily compare their own texts in detail, and to see their own problems and compare them to typical problems of their peers.