Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter/Feedback/2023

General feedback about
book chapters

This page summarises general feedback about the 2023 student-authored book chapters. Detailed feedback about each individual chapter is available on the respective talk pages.

Overall

1. The overall quality of chapters was good, but there was a wide range

Overview

1. Generally very good
2. Consider using a case study or example or image to help engage reader interest

Theory

1. Usually a well selected range of theories were considered
2. Usually theories were explained in reasonably good depth
3. Build more strongly on other related chapters (e.g., by embedding links to other chapters)
4. More examples could be useful to explain the theories in practice

Research

1. Usually relevant research was summarised, but could often have been more indepth
2. Place more emphasis on major reviews such as meta-analyses
3. Sometimes there was insufficient citation to support claims

Integration

1. There was typically good integration between theory and research
2. Often there was more emphasis on theory than research - strive for balance

Conclusion

1. Useful summaries of key points were provided
2. Good emphasis on take-home messages, but could these messages could often be improved and made more explicit.

Style

Written expression

1. The quality of written expression was generally good. There seemed to be an improvement on previous years, perhaps due to the new widespread availability of gen-AI.
2. Some common problems were:
   1. in psychological science, write using 3rd person perspective, rather than 1st person[1]
   2. serial commas[2] should be used (they are part of APA style)
   3. use of ownership apostrophes
   4. "People" is often a better term than "individuals"
   5. Reduce use of weasel words which bulk out the text, but don't enhance meaning
   6. Avoid starting sentences with a citation unless the author is particularly pertinent. Instead, it is more interesting for the the content/key point to be communicated, with the citation included along the way or, more typically, in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
3. Use Australian spelling.
4. The main areas for improving APA style were:
   1. Citations with three or more authors should use the first author's surname followed by et al. and the year
   2. Reference formatting areas for improvement:
      1. capitalisation
      2. italicisation
      3. use of hyperlinked dois

Learning features

1. Embedded interwiki links to Wikipedia articles were underdone; more could be usefully added to most chapters
2. Embedded interwiki links to related Wikiversity book chapters were very underutilised
3. Images were well used, with several students uploading their own images (thankyou!)
4. Tables were less commonly used, but when they were were usually very useful
5. Feature boxes were well used
6. Quizzes were well used
7. Case studies were well used

Social contributions

1. There were many useful improvements to past and current chapters through social contributions
2. The amount and quality of these contributions varied widely
3. A small number of students contributed across three platforms (Wikiversity, UCLearn Canvas, and X/Twitter)
4. Unless there were direct links to evidence, no marks were provided
5. A handful of students received social contribution bonus marks