Developing good practice in the provision of effective feedback for distance learning students

For many distance learning students, feedback on assessed coursework is often the only communication they have with their department.  As such, feedback should play a fundamental role in the teaching and learning process, but there is a concern that this feedback may not be as effective as intended.  There are both pedagogic and practical issues concerned with the provision of feedback, such as the quality of feedback in terms of relevance, comprehension and comprehensiveness, the quantity of feedback provided, and practical issues such as the time taken to provide the often detailed written feedback and the implications this can have on future pieces of coursework.