Melanie,
Nice job. It is important to start feedback to students with something positive they have done and provide specific details. It's also essential to provide constructive feedback so they can learn from your feedback and be motivated to improves.
Excellent.
Donte,
Your input helps us all understand the importance of positive, individualized, timely feedback. These are three key components to appropriate feedback.
Helping students understand what they did wrong is important, but helping them further understand why what they did wrong was wrong takes it to a higher level.
Nice job.
Melissa,
You are correct - there is a fine line between constructive and negative. If you can start your feedback with a positive note, that is the best. But constructive feedback is effective and can motivate students to learn more and perform at a higher rate.
Nice job.
My feeling is that constistency is key. Although, students also need to know how to think "Outside the box" as well. Everything is not black and white. Objectives aside the students need to learn how to adapt to "some" changes with learning styles of our curriculum!
Amanda D
Amanda,
Consistency is very important. The students need to know there is an "outside" and be able to think critically about situations that occur within/outside the classrom environment. Helping them do this is key.
Thanks!
Feedback has to be related to the objectives of the course, so that it is clear to the student what she or he has missed.
Feedback should be individualized to the particular student.
Feedback needs to include opportunities of re-learning the material.
Miriam,
I like the way your organize your thoughts in these forums. Thanks.
Feedback that is individualized, specific and helps students learn more is essential. Sometimes it is hard to give students all the feedback they need, but as an instructor, especially online, it's important to give detailed information in a consistent, timely manner.
Nice job.
I think the three most important things to remember when providing feedback are:
1) It has to be relevant to the student and/or the course (either it improves the student's performance during the course or it improves the delivery of the course)
2) It has to be understood as an improvement to the student's long term development (the student should be able to take the feedback and improve their future work and cannot be "you did this wrong" and it never have another impact)
3) The feedback should not be meant to hurt the person's feelings, but more as an improvement so it should be private unless everyone is making the same mistakes.
Take care,
Mike
Mike,
You are right on track again. Relevant material, student learning, and compassion are three great goals for all teachers.
You take care too. Thanks you for your thoughtful comments in this forum.
When developing meaningful feedback, the three most important things to remember are:
1. Be positive and give constructive criticism
2. Explain yourself ---explain why certain context might be right or wrong
3. And provide feedback as soon as possible to the student so that they take away from the assignment and the feedback as much as possible.
Ana,
It is important to be positive and provide individual assessment/feedback. One key component you touched on is that students need to understand why what they are doing wrong is wrong. This helps students learn from the feedback and makes it more relevant and meaningful.
Thank you.
Meaning feedback the 3 important things to me are:
What they have learned from the assignment
How they can/have apply, the information presented
How well they are doing, how to improve the course
Joseph,
You bring good topics for discussion to this forum. Good teaches must assess what has been learned and it's most beneficial when students can transfer their knowledge to the "real world." All of the feedback you collect from students and others provide important key elements to take into consideration when revising the course. Course revision is a constant cycle.
Nice job.
Hello, the three most meaningful feedback items are timeliness, individualized and definitely positive. I can tell from experience I was not happy to get a paper back full of negatives. I try to incorporate the sandwich method the good and the bad. I try to individualize feedback by actually reviewing and placing comments on students work and I try to use sources and places students can go to improve their work or ideas. If a student uses a bad source I try to provide an example of one that would be better suited. Feedback is about improving.
Nicholas,
Again you are right on target. Feedback should be positive, help the individual student, consistent and timely. Your last statement is particularly true - it's about helping the students improve.
Many times an example up front and definitely a well defined/structured rubric is effective in helping students understand what is expected of them before they begin the assignment/project.
I love the saying: Assessment is not something we do TO students, it's something we do WITH students. Nice job.
Meaningful feedback must be concise and easy to understand. The feedback needs to be individualized to each student. There are certain phrases or even sentences that may be repeated, but the total sum of the feedback should be directly applicable to that student's task. The feedback should be provided shortly after the assignment has been completed in order to aid the learning process and should be delivered in a positive manner. The feedback should help the student to understand how the assignment has been graded and how they can improve.
I beleive the three most important things to remember about meaningful feedback are:
1.Feedback must not be generic.
2.The feedback must be connected to the learning objectives
3.The feeback should provide insight into the student's level of understanding of the material and also give the student ways to improve their learning
.
Michelle,
Keeping feedback consise and to the point is a good idea. Many times it's hard to give students complete feedback in a concise way, but it is important ot try.
Many times I grade the same document twice. I grade it one time for one aspect and then again for another particular aspect. That way students get sufficient feedback in a concise format.
Helping them improve is the point. Nice job.
Charlene,
Your insights into feedback are correct. As an instructor, you must be specific to help the students not only understand that they did something incorrectly, but why it was incorrect. This helps them improve.
When you tie feedback to learning outcomes/objectives (typicaly through the use of a rubtic), the student further understand what is expected of them.
Very nice.
Assessment is always a challenge for any instructor. No matter how well written the rubric there are always students who seem to fall somewhere in the middle. It is important to provide meaningful feedback to provide greater opportunities for student learning. For me, the three most important points to remember are:
1. Feedback has to be timely. Feedback that comes weeks after the assignment has been post is in all likelihood going to useless to the student. The student has moved on from the assignment has has other projects or issues on their minds.
2. Feedback needs to be specific and personalized for full effectiveness. Exactly what did the student do that was not up to the standards of the rubric. What does the student need to do to improve this project or future projects.
3. Feedback needs to be provided for all students, not just the lower performing students. All students, even those, who post work that consistently draws the highest marks, can improve in some way. It is important that we show those students ways to better their work as well.
