Is the essay resubmission option a formative or a summative assessment and does it matter as long as the grades improve?

Typically, essays are used as summative rather than formative assessments and students experience them as tasks rather than learning opportunities. Thus, the aim of this study was to see whether providing students with detailed formative feedback and an opportunity to resubmit their essay would improve their essays writing skills. Twenty-six out of 54 third-year psychology students resubmitted their essay. Of those 26 resubmitted essays, 18 were awarded higher grades. Although the students observed that their skills had improved, they mainly perceived the resubmission option as a 'safety net' and were motivated to use it as a way of improving their grades. Lack of time was the most common reason given for not resubmitting. Therefore, lecturers may be faced with a challenge of finding ways of not only providing formative feedback but also encouraging students to use it as such.