Bringing FeedbackFruits into contract law

My inspiration behind the adoption of Feedback Fruits was my past experience with peer assessment in the contract law units, and student feedback on collaborative assessment with and without a group member evaluation peer assessment tool.

I saw the benefits of having a group member evaluation tool, and how it could obviate some of the disbenefits of collaborative assessment. Without group member evaluation of collaborative assessments, I observed that students raised concerns about free riding and the fact that all members in a group would get the same mark for a collaborative assessment irrespective of their contributions and their collaboration on that assessment task. This led me to do some reading of the literature and gain an understanding of the pedagogical value of having group evaluation of collaborative assessment. This background experience inspired me to bring FeedbackFruits into the contract law units and to assist others in the faculty to use it in their units as best practice where they have collaborative assessment.

For law students, collaboration and communication are Threshold Learning Outcomes of a law degree, which are academic requirements for admission to legal practice. Having FeedbackFruits means that these skills are facilitated through a structured learning and assessment process. Students get feedback on their collaboration and communication, they are assessed on these, and they develop these essential skills.

FeedbackFruits also likely adjusts student behaviour and reduces the problem of free riding because students know that there's an accountability mechanism to address it, so they proactively engage in more positive collaborative behaviours.

I have championed peer assessment and group member evaluation in the contact units, and discussions within the Law Faculty made me realise that this is something that could be utilised by other law units as well.

When I implemented FeedbackFruits into the contract units, I did it in a way that could easily be picked up by other law units with collaborative assessment. My plan was that I could do the legwork and the decision making in a way that would work for both the contract unit collaborative assessment, and also collaborative assessments in other law units. As I was learning about FeedbackFruits and making decisions, I was thinking “What does a Chief Examiner in another law unit need to know to set this up effectively and not have to reinvent the wheel?”

I set up the Feedback Fruits activity template in a way that I thought would work well for law units generally (not just my unit). It seemed a more effective way for other law academics to also implement the tool.  They can simply use my template with all my decisions behind it (such as how the grade adjustments will work and what feedback tips the students receive).

I implemented FeedbackFruits in the contract units in Semester 1, 2025. I had some learnings from my first implementation, and I ironed out a few wrinkles and improved some aspects for the following semester.

I shared my knowledge of this assessment practice and the tool within the law faculty and at a national law academic conference, and trained other law CEs so that they can operate it easily and piggy-back on my process from first implementation. I am developing a network within the law faculty of academics that are interested in using this assessment tool in collaborative assessment in their units.

My approach was based on how I can assist and make things more effective for others, so I prepared teacher materials setting out the student information to cut and paste and put on Moodle, the evaluation criteria (rubric), step-by-step instructions on how to set up the activity using my template, and guidance on how to moderate the results.

I think this depends on whether they are the first to use FeedbackFruits in their faculty, like I was, or whether anyone else has already used it in their faculty.

I would recommend going to all the resources provided on TeachHQ to understand the software and the assessment tool, and utilising any resources at hand. They shouldn’t reinvent the wheel if they don’t have to. If they are the first to use FeedbackFruits in their faculty I encourage them to consider facilitating the use by others in their faculty by sharing information and expertise.