Effective feedback is:
1. Frequent and timely
2. Specific
3. Invites action
4. Provides personalized support
Feedback needs to happen regularly throughout the course and should occur in the moment or quickly following the learning experience.
Feedback is most effective when it is specific. Rather than saying “good job” or “needs work”, point to specific aspects within the student’s work and explain how these aspects are on target or need improvement. Feedback is not useful if it only comes along with evaluation where students cannot put the feedback into action for improvement.
Personalized feedback helps show students that you are invested in their learning development and serves as a motivational factor that drives their improvement. While much feedback can be standardized using tools like rubrics, adding personal comments that use a positive emotional tone is incredibly effective in increasing student engagement.
Helpful Sources:
How to Give Your Students Better Feedback With Technology
Feedback Strategies for Online Courses - Kelly, Faculty Focus (2014)
5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback - Stenger, Edutopia (2014)
Ten Tips for More Efficient and Effective Grading - Smith & Maher Palenque, Faculty Focus (2015)
It is imperative that students be able to self-assess. This metacognitive skill is hugely important to their success well beyond the scope of the classroom.
It is important that instructors provide opportunities for students to identify their strengths and needs and to apply this understanding to make improvements.
Reflective practices such as blogging or summarizing their own learning is a great way to incorporate self-assessment.
It can also come from grading themselves on a rubric, keeping a journal on progress, or even taking automated knowledge check quizzes that provide instant data.
Peer reviewing is also a crucial life skill that often gets overlooked. This process helps students to learn how to constructively critique one another.
Often, peer reviewing helps students to also self-assess their own work and helps the development of self-directed learning.
With both self-assessment and peer reviewing, instructors need to provide expectations.
Students need help in both giving and receiving feedback.
Look at examples to formulate ideas, then adapt them to personalize the rubric to your specific criteria
Review prior student work to help identify criteria
Include students in the process of identifying criteria and performance levels
Reflect on the effectiveness and make revisions for future use
Exemplary, Proficient, Developing, Needs Improvement
Expert, Professional, Amateur, Novice
Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Approaching Expectations, Below Expectations
Advanced, Accomplished, Adequate, Needs Work
Distribute the rubric with the assignment BEFORE students begin work
Allot time to go over the rubric with students and answer questions to clarify the expectations
Give feedback multiple times throughout the project based on the rubric
Have students use the rubric for self-assessment or peer review