REGARDING FEEDBACK

As mentioned earlier, facilitating assessments is only one part of setting our learners up for success. We also need to follow through on providing feedback based on those assessments. Doing so helps us to direct our learners towards what to focus on for further improvement. So what constitutes effective feedback, and how can we facilitate delivering it? Let's first consider those things which make feedback effective.

Be as Specific as Possible: A common struggle for faculty is giving learners either too much feedback or not enough. Too much feedback makes the learner feel overwhelmed. They walk away wanting to throw their hands in the air or not even remembering what it was you wanted them to focus on. Not enough feedback often ends up looking like comments such as "Great work!" or "Try to going into more detail next time." Comments like these don't give the learner actionable steps that they can take. The best thing to do is focus on one or two key things you want the learner to focus on. Communicate those things and give the learner actionable steps they can take to accomplish them. Perhaps there are more things they should improve beyond these, or perhaps they are already knocking it out of the park. In either case, the learner will appreciate focused guidance that they can actually take action on.
The Sooner, The Better: This is something we hit on earlier when discussing balanced assessment. The sooner you can make feedback available to learners, the more impact it will have. When you students complete an assessment, there is only a small window of time in which that content will stay fresh and relevant in their heads. We want to close knowledge gaps and provide clarity while that window is still open.
Address the Learner's Advancement Toward a Goal: This goes hand in hand with aligning your formative assessments. You are preparing your learners for those high-stakes summative assessments that will determine their success in the course. As such, you should be providing learners feedback that will contribute toward meeting that goal. Don't let yourself get caught up in details that are not relevant to meeting the competencies that your course is meant to address.
Present Feedback Carefully: Giving feedback requires tact, empathy, and purpose. It is a good idea to establish early on with your learners how they can expect to be given feedback and the purpose behind it. You don't want learners to walk away from a lesson with resentment or anger because your feedback felt like a personal attack. Also keep in mind that not all learners will be as receptive to the same approach. Some learners struggle greatly with school in general, and if you get too intense or casual, it may cause unwanted stress. Get to know your learners and look for ways to bring opportunities for improvement to their attention in a way they will be receptive.
Involve Learners in the Process: More than anything, this comes down to clarity. You want your learners to know how you are assessing them and how they are performing. The more clarity you can provide in this process, the more the learners can take actionable steps towards improvement. One way that we can give this clarity is by utilizing rubrics - a topic we will be addressing later in this module.

Adapted from 5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback

Methods of Delivering Feedback

Much like the variety of ways in which we can assess our learners, there are many ways that we can deliver feedback. When deciding how you deliver feedback, keep in mind that the goal is to help learners close knowledge gaps so that they are better prepared to take on the summative assessments of the course. This means we should be considering different modes of delivery for feedback to ensure key ideas resonate with our learners. And while your inclination may be to assess each learner individually, keep in mind that feedback can be directed toward individuals, groups of students, or the entire class. Choosing the best mode and audience for your feedback can make your life a lot easier while making the feedback more meaningful to learners.

Below is a table that presents examples of feedback based on these variables. There are many more variables and examples beyond what is shown here, but hopefully, this helps to spur some reflection on how you are currently delivering feedback and ways you might make improvements.

Examples of Feedback Based on Modality and Audience
	Spoken	Written	Video	Live Demonstration
Individual	As learners work through an assessment, the instructor goes around and looks for opportunities to provide guidance. The instructor ensures equity by not spending too much time on any one individual learner. The instructor should be mindful not to hover too much and include praise along with their advice.	The instructor uses the learning management system to provide learners with written comments. The instructor needs to consider carefully what they choose to write. Time spent marking up a paper may be wasted if it is overwhelming or unrelated to the course competencies. Written feedback also should not be too broad or impersonal. Focus your written comments on key areas of focus and give the learner ideas of how to make improvements.	The instructor records webcam or screen recording videos for each learner. These videos must be short for simple logistic reasons. They also need to be concise and give learners concrete examples of what they can do to improve.	Students are working individually in a lab. You check in with each learner to assess their work. To deliver feedback on their work, you could have them demonstrate the objective and critique/advise changes they should make. Alternatively, you can demonstrate the objective yourself and ask the learner to explain what the observe and compare it to their own work.
Small Group	The instructor puts online learners into breakout rooms and tasks each group with completing a task. After having a chance to work, the teacher visits each breakout room and provides feedback based on the work they have completed.	Online learners are broken into groups using Canvas. The learners are tasked with taking part in a discussion with their groupmates based on a prompt provided by the instructor. As each group discusses the topic, the instructor provides feedback on their main takeaways.	Learners are working on a semester-long group project. The instructor provides periodic feedback as the groups progress on their projects by recording a screen share video that provides commentary as the group’s work is shown.	Learners are grouped in a lab environment and tasked with completing a set of procedures. The instructor visits each group and watches the learners perform the procedures. The instructor models changes they should make and watches as they improve their technique.
Whole Class	The instructor facilitates an assessment activity. Once learners have had the chance to think critically, the instructor gives learners a chance to share their ideas. As ideas are shared, the instructor writes down their contributions and asks leading questions to help them refine their ideas.	An online class is given an assessment to work on over the course of a module. At the end of the week, the teacher posts an announcement in Canvas that hits on the main points from the assessment and provides clarifications for common mistakes that learners made.	An instructor records a weekly check-in video for an online class. In the video, the instructor calls out the accomplishments from the past week and gives clarification to some areas that the learners demonstrated confusion in the content covered.	Learners are given time to perform a set of steps in a process on their own. The instructor observes their work and notes mistakes that they see. After the activity, the instructor demonstrates the process and intentionally includes mistakes they observed. The instructor asks learners to explain what is wrong and why.