About RAFT
Assessment and feedback, designed in partnership
RAFT supports academic staff and students in collaboratively improving assessment and feedback practices across the university. It promotes evidence-informed innovation in assessment, academic integrity and student engagement.
RAFT recognises that assessment and feedback are central to the student learning experience. Through a structured action research approach, staff working in programme teams, in collaboration with students, are supported to explore challenges within their own teaching contexts, design and implement innovative interventions, evaluate their impact, and share their findings with colleagues across the institution.
The initiative aims to enhance the assessment and feedback experience for both students and staff by creating opportunities for collaboration, reflection and continuous improvement. Students are at the centre of the process, with meaningful student-staff partnership in the design and evaluation of assessment practices.
Through this work, RAFT contributes to:
RAFT @ MTU
From an individual programme to a university-wide team programme
RAFT was established in 2021 as part of MTU's Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) funding, to support a key national priority of building best practice in academic integrity. It has since grown from an individual programme into a team programme offered across the university.
RAFT is built around a collaborative action research model. Participating staff work individually or in programme teams to identify a challenge or opportunity within their assessment and feedback practice. Over the course of the project, participants:
The programme combines professional development, peer learning, student partnership and pedagogical research, giving participants both practical improvements and opportunities to develop their scholarship of teaching and learning.
Impact across MTU and beyond
A growing community of practice
Since its introduction, RAFT has engaged staff from multiple disciplines and campuses across MTU, creating a vibrant community of practice focused on assessment enhancement. The initiative has supported dozens of assessment innovations and has positively influenced the learning experience of a large number of students through evidence-based improvements in assessment and feedback.
Key outcomes include:
Open resource
The RAFT practical toolkit
A practical toolkit for enhancing higher education through collaborative action research, drawing on the RAFT journey from September 2021 to June 2025. Openly available on the National Forum Teaching and Learning Hub.