Feedback is a critical area of practice where the emotional impact of assessment is at play (Falchikov & Boud 2007; Rowe, Fitness & Wood 2014; Winstone & Carless 2020) and where compassion and belonging can enhance resilient learning communities. While the central role of feedback in students' learning is well documented (Hattie & Timperley 2007) and guidance for staff for effective feedback is available (Boud & Molloy 2013), using compassion as a primary driver has been less explored.

The objectives were to create workshop models that staff can use to generate definitions of compassionate feedback and guidance for approaches within creative HE. The aims were to co-develop advice we might give ourselves, our colleagues, and students for a compassionate approach to feedback and to interrogate how to adapt existing processes to further compassionate feedback. This approach responds to Jan McArthur's call to restore 'joy' in assessment (2018) by contributing manageability, compassion, and resilience to the assessment experience for students and staff, including in terms of workload and the 'emotional labour of feedback' (Spaeth 2018).

This research stems from the QAA collaborative project Belonging in Assessment (University of the Arts London, Leeds Arts University & Glasgow School of Art).