Feedback should be meaningful. Even if the student is not allowed to go back and resubmit the assignment, they should have information that will help them improve.
Feedback should have an example. Sometimes students need to see a version of the assignment that is correct so that they can make a comparison with their own work
Feedback should be timely. Students need to know about the changes and the corrections that need to be made while it is fresh in their minds.
Pierre,
Right on! Keeping students engaged in the learning and developing ways to obtain feedback is essential. Thanks for your input.
Meaningful and constant feedback is essential to a successful online course. It supports active learning when used as a communication tool and done through the course. It should be fair, accurate, encouraging when possible and motivating.
Antonio,
You are right on track. When providing feedback, it should help the students improve. Rubrics help the students and the instructors. I like that you provide details in your assessment. Good job.
1. I like to tie in the feedback with something that was meaningful in their papers. That lets the student know I read it.
2. I try my best to give them a total of correct answers multiplied by the points of each question and a final result, instead of the negative approach. ex. -6 incorrect.
3. I like rubrics that are easy to understand. Basically, if you do not answer the question -xx amount of points off. If you do not meet word minimum requirements -xx points. Spelling and grammar xx possible points can be deducted.
The three most important things to remember about meaningful feedback is that feedback should:
1. Be consistence and given frequently - automatically when possible
2. Be related to the course objectives and relevant to the content the student is supposed to learn
3. Be positive in nature so that the student doesn't receive it negatively and lose interest in the material or confidence in themselves.
Stephen,
Thanks for adding to the conversation. It is great to see commonalities in the postings no matter how old they maay be. Thanks again.
Stephen,
Thank you for your indepth response. You are right on target. Ensuring students understand the learning outcomes and expectations is the first step. Providing feedback that is consistent, objective driven and provided to help the students improve is essential. Thanks for continuing the conversation in this forum.
Hello Alysha,
I think you provided relevant things related to feedback. The last one was something I did not mention but think it is very important. For me, grading good papers is much easier than grading ones that did not meet the criteria. But maintaining a positive tone is a key to help students remain committed to taking the feedback and improving.
Thanks for the good response! (Even though you posted it nearly 2 years ago, I wanted to respond).
Stephen W. Volz, DBA
Three of the most important things to remember when developing meaningful feedback includes paying attention to:
1) Objectives - The feedback should be tied to the broad objectives of the assignment. The feedback will indicate how well the student met the objective(s).
2) Criteria - The feedback should be specific to the criteria items of the assignment. For example, if an assignment involved a discussion of three concepts, the feedback should state how many concepts were described in the student paper.
3) Details - The feedback should be detailed enough so that students know how they can improve. The level of detail should be related to the criteria. If one of the criteria was for the student to submit the assignment by a due date, a simple statement listing the day submitted would suffice. However, more involved criteria would need more detailed feedback.
Stephen W. Volz, DBA
Diane,
Right on! Students should understand that the feedback from the instructor is designed to help them improve. This can be done through consistent, positive (yet constructive) and timely feedback. Thanks for your input.
1. Consistency
2. Postive
3. Timely
All feedback should be these three things in order for students to gain a positive influence of feedback.
Lisa,
Absolutely. Timely, support the rubric (or vice versa) and positive, yet provide constructive criticism. Students should learn from our feedback. Thank you.
Bryan,
Absolutely. Being positive and yet provide constructive criticism. We want students to learn from our feedback. Nice job.
Bryan,
Yes, timeliness is very important. Other key points to consider include consistency, providing informaiton to helpo students improve, and communicating clearly. Nice job.
Dr. Crews.
I think feedback should be 1)in a timely fashion, 2)incorporate the rubrics with the feedback, and 3)make positive statments of the content that is given by the student while also providing areas to strengthen the students work.
Hi Jae and all,
I try to respond before I read through these posts. If I read them first, it becomes impossible to think of a good response, but I will say that I might also include encouragement in my list. As an instructor, we want students to feel that they can achieve what they are trying to do, since that sense has a positive effect on their actual ability.
Certainly timeliness is important as well as personalization. If there is a third element, I imagine that it would be useful suggestions, perhaps coupled with helpful links to resources that can help with whatever problem the student may be having.
Getting back to the student quickly is important because it prevents the sense of isolation. For the same reason, students should be addressed in individual ways. They do not want to feel like part of a machine.
Joe,
Thank you for you great input to this forum. You are right on with your comments. Students are people and treating them as such helps develop the respect needed to build an effective learning environment. Developing learning outcomes and communicating the outcomes is certainly necessary. With the feedback you provide to students many times comes the motivation. Feedback should be meaningful and help the students improve. The rubrics provide guidelines for both the students and teachers. They are a must. I like the way you think! ;-) Thanks again.
I would like to expand the three concepts most others have chosen for the three most important things to remember. The concepts in the lessons are extremely important, and I read and studied the others postings. First, I would like to add that all students are people and have feelings. They need to be receiving feedback in a positive manner, but all feedback isn’t positive. The student also needs to understand errors or omissions and be guided to correct these. This takes more time for the instructor, but a positive relationship between the instructor and student leads to trust. I think the same argument applies to peer feedback also. Treat others like you want to be treated.
Second, explanations of the objectives and understanding the rubrics have big payoffs. I know I get emotional when someone tells me I’m all screwed up and the input has nothing to do with the course objectives. Again, treat folks like you’d want to be treated and engage in spirited, polite conversation to intensify the learning experience. Too many students provide minimum effort in evaluating others performance against the rubric or objectives. Read understand the objectives and rubrics. Ask questions if you don’t and then apply the same effort to the task you’d like to see the instructor apply to your assignment.
Third, positive, motivating feedback is good, but let’s not forget the objective of taking a course. Learning must occur. The instructor should attempt to guide, teach and mentor all parts of the course, to include private coaching to students providing peer evaluation. Although negative feedback can usually be provided in a positive manner, cheerleading can be counterproductive. I have observed instructors and students continually give “positive†feedback throughout a course. When it comes to grades, the student is very disappointed. The student perceived excellence by the positive comments, but failed to realize the objectives were not being met.
I realize this discussion is beyond the original question, but thought it might provoke deeper thought. How do we, as instructors, develop rubrics and grade while still motivating and encouraging students? Should we tailor how we respond to the individual student or keep it standard? How do we know the student understands the objectives and rubrics? It is difficult and time consuming to do all these things right. The guidelines presented in this lesson are good, but only the basics. We as instructors also have to self access, get peer evaluation and outside review to continually strive for excellence.
