Best Practices: Give Prompt Feedback
What Are Key Research/Scholarship Starting Points?
Encouraging this is your classes is is one of Chickering & Gamson's "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education"
What is It?
Structured and regular opportunities for constructive feedback to students is a key element to the learning process. As Chickering & Gamson originally stated:
Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance. by Grant WigginsJossey-Bass (1998)Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers.
by Angelo & Cross,
What are Potential Issues/Downsides to Be Prepared For?
Student Pushback
Students have typically been beaten into submission that the broken midterm/final assessment paradigm is the only possible option. Introducing an Educative Assessment model might meet from some student resistance who may not be comfortable with additional, proactive assessments. Sharing with your students the research and underlying rationale for this should help address this.
Student "Assessment Fatigue"
While best practices in the resources mentioned here do state that you need a continuous flow of assessment feedback (formal and informal), you have to be aware of not giving TOO many assessments to your students. Even several non-graded assessments can burn out students and lead them to go through the motions rather than give you honest reflections or feedback.
Examples How This Might Be Implemented in a Distance - Online/Hybrid/Video Conferencing Courses
Formative frequent, automated quizzes in blackboard to test comprehension of material.
Setup weekly or bi-weekly reflection assignments
Have rubrics for grading in depth assessments and offer student opportunities to use the rubric.
Offer opportunities for doing small pieces of a large project or paper and or submit a draft to offer feedback before the final project or product is due.
Be helpful and constructive in the feedback you offer students. Recognize and encourage good performance while offer specifics on what needs improvement or attention.
In addition to assignment deadlines, offer a deadline that students will receive feedback from you on their work.
"Knowing what you know and don't know focuses learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from courses. When getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during college, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves."
- Chickering & Gamson's "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education"
This means going beyond the default of a midterm and a final as the assessment data. Fink (2003) goes so far as to say that
"the widespread practice of giving feedback only in the form of two midterms and a final is simply insufficiently frequent for high-quality learning."
Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to College Course Design, pg 96
Angelo & Cross (1993) offer a concise case of the need for ongoing assessment:
"By the time faculty notice ... gaps in knowledge or understanding, it is frequently too late to remedy the problems. To avoid such unhappy surprises, faculty and students need better ways to monitor learning throughout the semester. Specifically, teachers need a continuous flow of accurate information on student learning."
- Angelo & Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. Jossey-Bass (1993) , pg 3
Different forms of Assessment
Wiggins (1998) made a key distinction in the literature of assessment, differentiating between AUDITATIVE vs. EDUCATIVE assessments:
"I use the term auditing and audit test to describe checking up on activities after they are over, as accountants audit a business's books... schools too often focus on the equivalent: we focus on teaching students to pass simplistic, often multiple-choice tests composed of 'items' that neither assess what we value nor provide useful feedback about how to teach and how to learn.... Many folks are finally coming to understand that assessment is of no value unless it is is educative - that is instructive to students, teachers and school clients and overseers.... once assessment is designed to be educative, it is no longer separate from instruction; it is a major, essential and integrated part of teaching and learning..."
How Do you Address This/Use It?
Fink (2003) recommends developing a "FIDELity" assessment strategy that contains the following elements
"Frequent
feedback occurs in every class if possible or at least every week. The students are doing something about which they get feedback, usually from the teacher or fellow learners...
Immediate
feedback occurs very close in time to the learning activity itself, if possible during the same class...."
(Note: IF-AT scratch off quiz sheets from Epstein Education are an excellent tool for this!! Contact the DL Office [419.755.4706] to get trial IF AT sheets to work with)
"Discriminating
feedback distinguishes between good and poor performance in a way that is clear to the students... needs to be based on clear criteria and standards...
Lovingly (or Empathetically) delivered
feedback is essential to get the message through... "
Angelo and Cross (1993) offer up a collection of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) that are aimed at being "context-sensitive... flexible... likely to make a difference... mutually beneficial... easy to administer.... easy to respond to.... and educationally valid" (pgs 26-27)
"One Minute paper" -
"Muddiest Point" -
"Application Cards" -
For more specific ideas, see OLN's collection of links.