Terry,
Ah - you obviously get to know your students. Connecting your feedback to their learning style is excellent if you can do that. Thanks for bringing that up!
Terry,
Right on! Again, you are connecting the learning objectives to the learning and feedback process. Nice job.
When responding to my students, some of the most crucial elements I tend to keep in mind are as follows:
1. Who the student is and what type of learner are they (visual vs. textual).
2. Where the student is in relation to their skills for the required course. Some students may need more "in-depth" formative feedback than others.
3. Providing a variety of feedback also helps enhance the students self-efficacy. For example - for my visual learners, I tend to create a video critique to help "show" them how to enhance their final designs for their portfolios.
When developing meaningful feedback for assignments or projects, three elements need to be applied:
1. Tie the feedback to course learning objectives
2. Be specific in your evaluation
3. Always provide positive feedback as well as constructive and detailed information.
Kevin,
I love the use of rubrics to provide meaningful feedback to students and also for peer reviews. Thanks for bring that to the conversation.
Eyad,
Definitely. You're right. When the rubric is provided to students up front with the explanation, the rubric and explanation work hand in hand to help students understand the expectations. Thanks!
Provide the students with a rubrics to allow them to see how the assignment is going to be graded. Give them feedback on what they did wrong and what you was looking for and a different approach to the correct way of doing the assignment. Then peer reviews of there work so they might be able to see things that will help them later in the course.
I think when an assignment or project is being explained to the student in a certain way the rubric should be a part of that explanation. Also developing their self assessment creates an opportunity for them to review themselves as well as their peers. Third but not last should be providing different components of meaningful feedback. All these aspects should be done with a positive tone, in a visual way and always connected to learning objectives.
Nancy,
Good point. I love that you note that the meaningful feedback should give the students a "better picture." Thanks!
James and Donna,
You are right on target again. A well-designed rubric can help both the instructor and students and make the ever-important connection to the learning objectives. Thanks!
James,
Positive feedback that helps direct the students toward the learning objectives and helps motivate them to learn is excellent. Your note about being specific is excellent as well. Nice job.
Debra,
Meaningful feedback should certainly help students focus on the content, be positive and help students be motivated to learn. And, I'm glad you mentioned the connection to the course objectives as well. Nice job.
They are:
1. being consistent with the rubrics, if it is the case
2. be positive and warm
3. use applications that can provide a better picture for the student so he can understand in a more concise way his/her evaluation.
Donna,
Thank you very much for your post. Rubrics are an important aspect of the feedback process in that they tie the feedback to the course learning objectives.
Excellent Point!
Jim
Tena,
This is an excellent question! I believe that the three most important things to remember when developing meaningful feedback for assignments are: 1) Keep the feedback positive and encouraging. As the unit says, the feedback does not need to be used to justify the grade. 2) Be specific and not boiler plate. The student needs to know if their assignment was weak in certain areas & 3) Provide resources for improvement.
Thanks
Jim
When developing meaning feedback, I think 3 important things to remember are:
1. Students each have their own viewpoint, which may be different than mine. Providing feedback in such a way that opens their view to seeing things in many different ways is important.
2. Be positive! Tearing their work apart will usually result in them giving up.
3. Focus on content-based feedback. If the class is anything but an English or composition class, then feedback should be focused on the content at hand, rather than just grammar and citations. Give them feedback on the things that are the most important to the course objectives.
Sean,
Yes, start with the positive and what was done correctly. That's great. Then the constructive criticism and specifics can help them improve. Thanks!
Three things that I use in feedback is to focus on:
What was done right first. In an online environment it is easy to read things in an ambiguous manner. Feedback needs to be clear, precise, and to the point. But it also needs to show what they did correct and focus on that while...
Giving them polish, points, ideas, or resources to do better. If the student is unclear or unable to do something instructors need to show how to change it and do better. Examples of how to write, pointers on how to use tools better like not to depend on the spell checker or even proofread to catch grammar errors.
The third is to, again, point out what was good about their assignment. Coming back to point A enforces them to understand that not everything was done wrong and that the mistake isn't overshadowing their strength.
Katherine,
Without the specific feedback, students can't improve. And, starting with a positive tone, set the tone for the whole class. Nice job.
I think you should stay positive in tone, be specific with details and make it individualized.
