Feedback
Feedback to the students and from the students is an essential component of communication. We must keep in mind the objectives of the assignments, the nature of the class, and continue to give positive feedback as much as we can.
Cindy,
You are correct. There are many things to consider when providing feedback to students. Keeping the objectives, course and tone of the feedback in mind is very important.
Overall, make sure your feedback (whether formative or summative) is meaningful. This will help students improve and see your feedback as your way of helping them, not just telling them what they are doing wrong.
Thanks!
Our University includes peer feedback in each and every course (embedded into one or more course assignments).
The students frequently note their displeasure with this task, noting they don't really feel qualified to assess/review another student and more often that they don't want to hurt anyone else's feelings. Similar to Donald Trump's "Apprentice" TV program, it is like asking "who on your team was the weakest member?" "Who would you fire?"
Admittedly not that pointed in the classroom; but those that do find fault with another's post are frequently the target of the reviewed student's wrath.
From a practical perspective, I am not sure that peer review is always a good or desirable thing or a positive learning tool.
If you think about the real world, peers do not judge co-workers for advancement or improvement, so why would one consider the practice viable in education?
Robert,
Interesting. It's important to give students guidelines for constructive criticism. Many students need to learn the skill. Any type of examples or rubrics you can provide as they provide their feedback will be helpful.
Actually in my field, we do use peer evaluation and it does impact our annual reviews. But, i really look it as a method to teach students how to evaluate good work. If they become managers of others they will have to judge others' work and they need to be able to decipher what good work looks like.
Thanks agian for your input.
My pleasure, thanks for taking the time to reply.
I could not survive without a rubric. It helps me organize my approach to very difficult to grade essays and such.
Virginia,
Ha! Me either. Rubrics have helped me and my students for year.
Thanks for your input.
As an online student myself I know that positive feed back works wonders since I am not in the classroom. I wait with anticipation to see if i pleased my professor, so as an online teacher myself I try to give the most positive feed back to my students because I know how encouraging it feels!
kathy,
Don't we all like positive feedback? And, feedback that helps us improve.
That is the key. Thanks for your input in this forum.
I agree that feedback to the students and from the students are necessary components of communication in the online classroom. And of course feedback should be on a regular basis, as well as provide some detail in assessing the students work. It should also provide some discussion on how the student’s work or performance can be improved.
Alfretta,
Timely, detailed feedback to help the students improve is great feedback. Thanks for your input.
