When delivering meaningful feedback I believe it important to be honest with student by providing examples of what the student did well, and to provide examples of how the student can improve. I believe it is equally as important to avoid personally attacking the student. The feedback should be professional and clear. The student should be able to articulate the message being delivered without becoming offended.
Christi Monk
Deana,
Rubrics help provide meaningful feedback as long at the criteria are good and we also provide individualized comments. Both are helpful. Good point in your last sentence. Students need to understand what they don't understand. ;-) Thanks for your input.
Nicole,
A fine balance indeed this is! It's always good to start positive and build into the constructive criticism and end on a positive note (sandwich approach). The key is to help the students improve.
Nice job.
Marjorie,
Excellent. We want to be positive, but constructive. That is for sure. Connecting our feedback to the objectives will help the students understand the expectations more clearly and work toward achieving them. Thanks.
Be constructive with your comments.
Tie your comments to the assignment's objectives.
Be helpful and direct the student in ways that he or she can further learn and improve the quality of his or her work.
When developing meaningful feedback for assignments/projects in my online courses, I try to remember to provide effective feedback through the use of the grading rubric. I like to share the grading rubric and highlight the portions the students mastered. Further, I like to provide fast feedback. Students like to know how well they did as soon as possible. I also like to provide feedback during discussion board assignments. I like to provide an end of the week discussion where I question students on what they learned and what they still need to understand. :)
Hi Dr. Crews, when providing meaningful feedback, one of my top priorities is to balance the constructive criticism with positive remarks. These different types of feedback need to be woven together so that the student does not only focus on the less positive comments but can also see strengths. Feedback also needs to coincide with the information in the rubric, so that students can see how the comments relate to the criteria, objectives and grade. Additionally, focus in the comments should be on the key parts of the assignments or requirements. There are so many things to consider when trying to provide meaningful feedback, but I find remaining focused on these three principles to be helpful.
Nicole
Dr. Cecil,
Thanks for your input. You are right on target. We have to tie everything to the learning objectives so students understand why they are doing what they are doing. The rubrics should have the objectives included as well. Thanks!
Dr. Crews, I believe meaningful feedback must be tied directly to the course objectives and based on the rubrics for each part of the course. And, feedback should be tied to the specific and clear instructions for the assignment/project. Feedback given during formative assessments can be less formal, is usually short and to the point, is typically very individualized, and should be based on the specific directions for the assignment. Feedback given for the summative assessment is likely to be more formal (or even automated) since this type of feedback will be derived from assessment against the more formal and generally higher-level rubrics for the entire course.
Jacinda,
Meaningful feedback should help students achieve the learning outcomes. They may first need to better understand the learning outcomes, but then, as you noted, they should be motivated to strive toward those objectives. Thanks!
Hi Tena and All!
I believe that when developing meaningful feedback for assignments into my own online course, there are three important factors to remember. They are:
1. Feedback should be timely
2. Feedback should be provided in a positive tone.
3. Feedback should be related directly to specific assignment objectives.
Such feedback will motivate the student to reach course objectives. It will also indicate to students that instructors are truly interested in helping them to achieve academic goals.
How can we best provide feedback to students who consistently fail to submit assignments?
Thanks,
Jacinda
Kathleen,
Begin positive goes a long way. Students need constructive feedback that can help them improved. Thanks!
Ruby,
The connection from the rubric to the learning objectives is essential. I'm glad that is done. The information you provide to students through the rubric should help them improve their work. Thanks for your hard work.
Laurie,
Yes, connecting the feedback to the learning outcomes is essential. We want to help students understand why they are learning what they need to learn.
Thanks!
Edwin,
Timely feedback is so helpful to the students. When it's provided with enough detail to help them improve - even better. Thanks!
I feel that being positive is the key. Rather than pointing out that a student's work is wrong I ask how could this be improved. Areas of online courses such as discussion posts can be seen by peers so I feel that we need to be sensitive to each student's contributions and evaluations. Lastly, monitoring proper peer review, being clear that we use this tool professionally and with a positive attitude towards each other.
Hello Dr. Crews,
We have a very strict Rubrics on both our assignments and weekly discussions. We have to provide feed back on 100% of our students. We do connect our Rubrics to our learning objectives which I think is important. They are individualized and specific with detail and on time. We offer positive praise and give the students additional references to refer to for additional learning and understanding. I think it is important that Rubrics do promote learning vs assigning grades. At this time, we do not provide the Rubrics to our students to self assess.
I hope this is in line of what you want for this question.
Ruby W.
Feedback should be personalized but should also reflect the objectives of the assignment.
Most important things to remember
1. Provide feedback at the earliest opportunity.
2. Feedback should be detailed and specific and while the tendency is to focus on where the student went wrong it is also important to let the students know what they did right.If a student has exceeded expectations I will let them know that.
3. Always give feedback
Kimberly,
Many people do not understand the difference between formative and summative feedback or they don't really know about formative feedback. Thanks for bringing that up!
