Providing Feedback

Providing Effective Feedback. It's a complex, subtle, and never-ending part of what we do. So many elements constitute the process - the focus and structure of the assignment, your pedagogical commitments about evaluation, considerations of time and effort - that it would be silly to offer a bunch of one-size-fits-all generalizations about the process. With that said, the nature of the online environment does offer some broad guidelines you should stay aware of:

  • the best feedback is the feedback students actually read. If your feedback is difficult to find, access, or interpret, it won't be helpful. Use your online tools to make it easier for students to get to (and benefit from!) all your hard work.

  • know all your options. Don't assume that feedback necessarily means "typing comments in a text box"! It's fine if that's your style; but make your decisions in full knowledge of what's possible - annotation, media comments, Rubrics, you name it. Talk to us for a full run-down of your options. Using multiple methods can also improve the accessibility of your feedback.

  • both types of feedback count. Remember the two types of feedback from the Six General Principles of Online Pedagogy?  You have the ability to provide Acknowledgement Feedback (confirms or assures the student that some event has taken place) or Information Feedback (evaluative, given in response to a student question or submission). Information feedback is what we think of first - but acknowledgment feedback is what will keep your students connected.

  • you don't have to burn yourself out. In courses with intense workloads, designing group and peer feedback mechanisms can distribute the responsibility for feedback in ways that add value to your course - enhancing student accountability, community building, and critical evaluation. This link below is to an article from the January 2014 issue of the NEA Higher Education Advocate with some useful ideas on planning feedback using Non-teacher Instructional Feedback Sources (NIFS). Check it out:

    Feedback Without Overload by Douglas Robertson Links to an external site.View in a new window