Founded in 1966, the University of Bath is a leading public university in the UK, known for its commitment to academic excellence, research, and student experience. The university fosters a collaborative environment where teaching, learning, and real-world application intersect, preparing students to become global leaders. Bath consistently ranks among the top universities in the UK, earning recognition for the quality of its teaching and student satisfaction, including a prestigious Gold award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Bath’s focus on employability is reflected in its strong track record—graduates are highly sought after, with many moving into successful careers or continuing further education soon after completing their studies.
Abby Osborne works at the University of Bath’s Centre for Teaching and Learning as their Assessment and Feedback Development Lead. She advises colleagues across the institution on best practices in assessment and feedback design. She has also worked in Curriculum Development and recently led the School of Management through the process of Curriculum Transformation, with a key focus on assessment design aligned with changing graduate attributes. Abby also has extensive experience in facilitating the development of inclusive teaching, learning, and assessment and has two books being published this year on neurodiversity and education and supporting learner wellbeing through curriculum design.
Dr Lucy Noble is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching in the University of Bath’s Department for Health, responsible for the strategic development and quality of learning and teaching. Lucy has 17 years of experience in Higher Education (across two institutions), teaching sports development and management at UG and PG levels. She has successfully innovated in the development and application of teaching, assessment, and feedback methods, and led departmental initiatives that improve learning environments and approaches to student support (with some focus on scaling teaching and learning). She is particularly passionate about developing a culture of assessment for learning and embedding academic and employability skills into the curriculum.
Yvonne Moore is the Digital Education Developments Lead in the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Bath. Working in education for almost 30 years, she has previous experience in the secondary school sector (as a teacher), in the further education sector (as an e-learning developer and adviser) and in the higher education sector (as a learning technologist). The focus of her current work is the exploration of existing and new learning technologies for effective learning and teaching working with colleagues from across the university to evaluate and implement good digital education practice.
Founded in 1966, the University of Bath is a leading public university in the UK, known for its commitment to academic excellence, research, and student experience. The university fosters a collaborative environment where teaching, learning, and real-world application intersect, preparing students to become global leaders. Bath consistently ranks among the top universities in the UK, earning recognition for the quality of its teaching and student satisfaction, including a prestigious Gold award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Bath’s focus on employability is reflected in its strong track record—graduates are highly sought after, with many moving into successful careers or continuing further education soon after completing their studies.
Abby Osborne works at the University of Bath’s Centre for Teaching and Learning as their Assessment and Feedback Development Lead. She advises colleagues across the institution on best practices in assessment and feedback design. She has also worked in Curriculum Development and recently led the School of Management through the process of Curriculum Transformation, with a key focus on assessment design aligned with changing graduate attributes. Abby also has extensive experience in facilitating the development of inclusive teaching, learning, and assessment and has two books being published this year on neurodiversity and education and supporting learner wellbeing through curriculum design.
Dr Lucy Noble is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching in the University of Bath’s Department for Health, responsible for the strategic development and quality of learning and teaching. Lucy has 17 years of experience in Higher Education (across two institutions), teaching sports development and management at UG and PG levels. She has successfully innovated in the development and application of teaching, assessment, and feedback methods, and led departmental initiatives that improve learning environments and approaches to student support (with some focus on scaling teaching and learning). She is particularly passionate about developing a culture of assessment for learning and embedding academic and employability skills into the curriculum.
Yvonne Moore is the Digital Education Developments Lead in the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Bath. Working in education for almost 30 years, she has previous experience in the secondary school sector (as a teacher), in the further education sector (as an e-learning developer and adviser) and in the higher education sector (as a learning technologist). The focus of her current work is the exploration of existing and new learning technologies for effective learning and teaching working with colleagues from across the university to evaluate and implement good digital education practice.
The University of Bath embarked on a curriculum transformation project to address the challenges of assessment and feedback in higher education. A key priority of this initiative was to ensure that learning technologies align with the pedagogical needs and aims of the new curriculum.
With a focus on assessment and feedback, Bath sought to address limitations in their existing toolset by implementing solutions that would help staff create and manage assignment activities efficiently while providing quality feedback to students. To support these efforts, the university introduced FeedbackFruits Teaching and Learning System designed to enhance peer review, automate feedback, and support formative assessments.
The University of Bath, known for its academic excellence, offers over 190 undergraduate and numerous graduate programs. With more than 20,000 students from 162 nationalities, Bath fosters a vibrant, diverse learning environment. The institution’s commitment to educational quality is evidenced by top-tier rankings, including the prestigious Gold award from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
To enhance learning outcomes, the university launched a curriculum-wide transformation aimed at aligning assessments with learning goals and developing real-world skills. However, managing assessments and feedback for large, diverse cohorts presented significant challenges. The university sought a solution that would streamline feedback processes, facilitate peer learning, and scale assessments effectively.
In pursuit of these goals, Bath introduced a pilot program featuring FeedbackFruits, which began in February 2024 and will expand further to allow more faculty to explore its potential.
As Yvonne Moore, from the Digital Education Developments team, noted:
"We’ve seen the most interest in areas like peer review, group work, and automated feedback."
To implement this transformation, Bath had to engage faculty amid change fatigue—a common challenge in higher education. The university adopted backward design, an approach that aligns assessments and course content with learning outcomes from the outset. This intentional, outcome-driven strategy represents a major shift from traditional models, where assessments were retrofitted to existing content.
By grounding assessments at the intersection of teaching and learning, Bath has given faculty a practical starting point. Constructive alignment—working backward from learning outcomes to assessment design—ensures students engage with course content in ways that develop essential skills.
Bath’s transformation also emphasizes real-world assessments, fostering graduate attributes such as critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptability—skills vital for future careers. However, scaling assessments effectively required innovative tools.
Abby Osborne, Assessment and Feedback Development Lead, shared:
"We’re thinking about what we can do about large cohort assessments. It’s all very well if you've got a very small class, but if you've got a large cohort, how do you scale everything up? Technology can actually really help us to achieve this sort of scaling up."
Two essential priorities guided Bath’s curriculum transformation: clarity and consistency. Clarity ensures students understand expectations, helping them meet learning outcomes. As Osborne explained:
"Students often struggle with higher-order thinking tasks—analysis, evaluation, and synthesis—because they don’t fully understand the marking criteria."
To address this, Bath implemented transparent rubrics, providing students with clear expectations and enabling them to align their efforts with assessment requirements. Consistency ensures that assessment standards are applied uniformly across courses, minimizing discrepancies between instructors and ensuring students receive cohesive feedback throughout their academic journey.
However, achieving these goals demanded more than faculty collaboration. The university integrated FeedbackFruits tools, ensuring feedback processes remained meaningful and aligned with learning goals across diverse cohorts. Osborne highlighted:
"With a lovely tool like FeedbackFruits, you can have things like feedback banks and audio feedback. We can really kind of scale up our approach."
Feedback Banks allow instructors to reuse standardized feedback across multiple assignments, ensuring uniform messaging while reducing grading time. At the same time, Peer Review activities guide students through structured assessments, promoting engagement with rubrics and deeper learning.
While Bath’s virtual learning environment, Moodle, provides core functionality, certain programs require additional tools to meet specific needs. FeedbackFruits addressed these gaps, supporting scalable and meaningful assessments across a variety of academic contexts.
Use Case 1: Distance Learning (Master’s in Education Program)
The online master’s program in education struggled to foster interaction among students due to limited in-person contact. To address this, the program adopted the Peer Review tool from FeedbackFruits, encouraging students to engage with each other’s work through structured assessments. This promoted collaboration and meaningful learning, even in a remote setting.
Use Case 2: Pre-Sessional Courses for International Students
International students preparing for academic life in the UK required frequent practice in academic writing. With limited teacher involvement, the program introduced the Feedback Coach feature from FeedbackFruits. The AI-powered feature provided students with instant, formative, actionable feedback on technical aspects (e.g. grammar, references, vocabulary, etc.), allowing them to refine their skills independently while remaining engaged throughout the course. This feature also helps instructors save time in providing feedback to large student cohorts, allowing them to focus more on developing students' higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
Use Case 3: Group Work in Pharmacy
Group projects in the pharmacy program posed challenges around fair grading and workload distribution. The program adopted the Group Member Evaluation tool, which allowed students to assess their own and their peers' contributions. This ensured accountability and promoted fair grading, reducing conflicts within group settings.
Use Case 4: Assessment Literacy in Sports Management and Coaching
In the sports programs, engaging students early with marking criteria was crucial for developing assessment literacy. As Dr. Lucy Noble, Director of Teaching in the Department for Health, explained:
“Based on my experience, students either don’t engage with the marking criteria, or if they do, it’s too late to make meaningful improvements. So, we use the peer review process in FeedbackFruits.”
This approach encourages peer-led learning and self-reflection. Students provide feedback on their peers' work and gain insights from comparing their submissions to others. Noble also emphasized the ease of using FeedbackFruits:
“As a complete novice, I found it easy to set up and coordinate. When a student had an issue in class, I used the chat function, and within minutes, the problem was resolved in real-time. This enhanced the student experience because if I couldn’t help them immediately, they wouldn’t have been able to engage with the task.”
The University of Bath’s curriculum transformation demonstrates that effective educational change requires both thoughtful pedagogy and strategic use of technology. FeedbackFruits has played a pivotal role in helping Bath scale assessments and feedback processes while fostering student engagement and assessment literacy across diverse programs.
Reflecting on these efforts, Abby Osborne emphasized:
"If a student doesn’t understand what they’re being marked for, and they don’t understand what those terms mean in the context of their discipline, then feedback almost becomes meaningless. It’s about getting that right at the beginning."
The integration of FeedbackFruits solutions —such as Peer Review, Automated Feedback, and rubric templates —has empowered both faculty and students, facilitating meaningful dialogue, critical thinking, and consistent feedback across programs. Osborne continued:
"We’re thinking about what we can do about large cohort assessments... Technology can actually really help us to achieve this sort of scaling up."
Through collaborative efforts and the strategic use of technology, Bath ensures that both experienced and new faculty can engage students effectively, enhancing learning outcomes. This transformation represents a shift toward deeper, more authentic learning experiences, equipping students with the skills they need to succeed in their academic journey and beyond.
With a focus on scalable feedback, student-centered learning, and transparent assessments, the University of Bath continues to set a standard for how technology and pedagogy can work together to meet the challenges of modern education.
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