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Skills Check 0

The Skills Check is a short survey which should take you no more than 3 minutes to complete. Once you have completed the Skills Check we provide you with a personal learning plan targeted to your personal study needs and goals.

Sign in to work on the Skills Check.
  1. Home
  2. Assignments
  3. Preparing assignments
  4. Learning from feedback

Learning from feedback

As well as marking the work, your tutor provides comments and advice on the content of your assignment, and on your skills in communicating your ideas.

Marking assignments is how we assess progress and ensure that students process the module material and learn. It's easy to just look at the grade and put the assignment away but the feedback I give is individual to each student. It's important to address misunderstandings so they aren't repeated in other assignments or in the exam.

OU student Mick talking about how feedback helped him to develop his writing skills

When you get your assignment back, you’ll no doubt look at the grade first and then look at your tutor’s comments. Try to be objective in how you react and use the suggestions below to build on your skills.

  1. Read carefully your tutor’s comments on the assignment and the PT3 form.
  2. Mark anything that you don’t understand and want to ask your tutor about.
  3. Take note of issues to do with your structure and presentation.
  4. Use a TMA review form to note any suggestions for future improvement.
  5. Keep your feedback in one place and occasionally return to it to identify themes that keep coming up.
  6. Speak to your tutor, or review material on this site for ideas on how to improve.

Take twenty minutes to review your assignment. If you want to check how you are doing on the module so far, you can use the assessment calculator. You can also find out about general assessment matters, including assignments and examinations.

The assignments listed below are from the 'Openings' programme of modules. Opening modules are designed as introductions to studying at university level. Tutors tailor any feedback according to the needs of each particular student, however, the comments here are designed to coach students in general assignment writing skills. To get a sense of how OU tutors give feedback on such modules, look at the tutors’ comments (on the right hand side of the later pages).