Lacking the ‘personal touch’: students’ perceptions of generative artificial intelligence in assessment feedback

Despite the potential usefulness of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) for providing assessment feedback, little is known about students’ understanding and perceptions of it. Addressing this gap is important to ensure that GenAI-assisted feedback is pedagogically effective, because its value depends on whether students perceive it as credible and worth acting on. Twenty-five students (14 female, mean age = 26.41 years) studying a range of courses at British universities with campuses in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates took part in one of seven focus groups (n = 23) or interviews (n = 2). They were asked to explain what are the characteristics of useful feedback, whether they felt that GenAI could provide this, and their feelings about its potential use by tutors. Reflexive thematic analysis generated two overarching themes: ‘characteristics of GenAI feedback’ and ‘use of GenAI in feedback processes’. Together, these demonstrated that students evaluated GenAI as a potentially useful tool for providing objective and individualised feedback, but not necessarily accurate feedback. Fundamentally, they did not believe it could replace human expertise or provide the ‘personal touch’, which supports the theory that effective feedback is dialogic. Findings can be used to guide practice and policy concerning the use of GenAI-assisted assessment feedback.