The feedback cafe: Creating opportunities for dialogue between students and staff regarding assessment and feedback

Feedback practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are often ineffective due to a combination of high staff workloads, low levels of student engagement and inadequate assessment literacy. To improve assessment literacy and student engagement with feedback at a UK HEI we introduced a Feedback Café initiative. Our Feedback Café was co-developed with students and has run for three years as a drop-in stall, manned by educators and student partners. The Feedback Café provides regular opportunities for students to ask questions about assessments and supports them to interpret and use feedback effectively. To explore student perceptions of the Feedback Café we surveyed two cohorts of Year 1 – 4 undergraduates (2021-22 N = 767; 2022-23 N = 729) gathering quantitative and qualitative data. Thematic analysis conducted on open-text responses revealed ways in which the Feedback Café was useful, barriers to attendance, and suggestions on how to improve through ongoing staff-student partnerships. The Feedback Café is generalizable to any subject and provides students with opportunities for two-way dialogue with relatively low staff workload. By sharing our insights, we aim to contribute to the efforts to improve assessment and feedback practices in HEIs and provide a guide for those interested in implementing a Feedback Café initiative.