Giving Feedback

Research on assessment suggests that learning is greatly enhanced when students receive timely and informative feedback on their work.  Providing quality constructive feedback on student work is even more important when teaching remotely, as in this context it provides a unique opportunity for communication and connection between teacher and student.  Deciding when, how – and even who – should provide feedback will be critical.

• Feedback is critical to help students realize what they do and do not know, so they can focus their learning efforts where most needed.
• Hearing other people’s point of view about your work can be very valuable.
• Receiving positive feedback can be very motivational, and thus increase student engagement.

• Students may feel discouraged, and sometimes even offended, by negative feedback – even when well intended!
  • Class norms and expectations about providing constructive feedback should be set in advance
  • Teacher and students should be sensitive to how they word and communicate their feedback
  • It may help to “sandwich” negative/constructive feedback in between two pieces of positive feedback
  • When possible, ask the learner first what s/he thinks went well or not, and then provide your additional feedback – it may make it easier to accept and process negative feedback
• Students may find it challenging to give feedback to their peers, as they do not think they are “experts”
  • Set clear expectations and class norms in advance
  • It will make a difference if students know that their feedback will help a classmate revise his/her product before a grade is given
• Providing students with timely and individualized feedback can be very time consuming
  • Being able to add comments on students’ work submitted online that are immediately accessible will help
  • Sharing rubrics and/or models ahead of time may save teacher’s time (and aggravation!)
  • Providing “summary/general” comments on common responses may also save teacher’s time

• The value of the feedback depends on the nature of the assessment/task – the more open-ended and intrinsically meaningful the task is, the more students are likely to value the feedback received
• How you present the feedback is critical – it can make the different between having a student “shut off”, or feel motivated to improve
• Showing models of past work is a powerful way of setting expectations – and thus providing feedback “before the fact”
• Receiving feedback timely increases its value greatly – although there is also value in “delayed/reflective” feedback

1. Create first a “safe learning environment,” with clear norms and expectations regarding feedback
2. Be sensitive about how negative feedback is worded and communicated
3. Set aside time in your schedule to provide timely feedback
4. Whenever possible, assign grades after the student has had the chance to make revisions in response to the feedback received
5. Provide rubrics and models of past work as a form of “advanced feedback”

Any Learning Management Systems (such as Schoology, Google Classrooms, Canvas, Blackboard) has built-in functions that:

• allow students to submit an electronic copy of their work that it is accessible just to the instructor, and to which the instructor could leave private comments;
• allow students to post their work publicly to the rest of the class (usually using the discussion board feature), so they can receive feedback from their classmates as well as the teacher in the form of public comments;
• most LMSs also include “grade books” that make it easy to decide what assignments gets graded and how, and to record those grades in ways that are easy to access.

Even if your institution has not invested in a Learning Management System, there are stand-alone apps (such as Padlet and Flipgrid) that allow students to post their work so that it is accessible to other students, as well as the instructor, for feedback in the form public comments.  However, if the instructor wants to provide feedback to be shared only with the student who did the work, other online tools will need to be considered to (including email).

Whenever student work involves written text, being able to embed edits and comments in the text itself is a very powerful form of feedback – from both teacher and peers.  Common examples are using the “track-changes” feature of Word, or the capabilities built in Google docs.

Sometimes leaving an oral comment on students’ work may feel more personal and nuanced.  Today’s there are a number of digital voice recording tools (like VoiceThred) that can be used to play this function – often in combination with compatible “sharing” apps or LMSs.

Platforms like Zoom or Google Meet allow students to share their work and get feedback in-the-moment from both instructor and classmates. Whenever the platform allows for break-out rooms, giving feedback could also occur within a smaller group (thus providing a higher level of privacy).

• Most immediate and potentially helpful
• Other students may benefit from it
• May put the student in question “on the spot”

• Allows the teacher to provide feedback that may benefit everyone, without making any individual student feel at a disadvantage
• Will not address student-specific issues

• Will provide the most individualized feedback, in a way that can be revisited
• It will be sufficiently private
• Student will connect more directly with the teacher
• Other students will not benefit from the feedback

• It will provide greater incentive for the other students to do a careful review and provide valuable feedback
• It will provide greater incentive for the “author” to pay attention to the feedback received and use it to improve the work
• Other students’ feedback may not always point in the right direction!

• It will validate students’ work without being perceived as an evaluation
• Unlikely to provide negative feedback