Making Feedback Meaningful and Motivating in Online or Traditional

Classrooms

Northwest Iowa Community CollegeSue GrapevineRebecca Hoey

Chris Anderson

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Making Feedback Meaningful and Motivating in Online or Traditional

Classrooms

Northwest Iowa Community CollegeSue GrapevineRebecca Hoey

Chris Anderson

Definition of Feedback

Feedback, like assessment, is evaluative, BUTfeedback is given more like coaching—itindicates to students what they must do toimprove for the future. Assessment comeswith a grade, feedback does not. Assessmentis announced like a grade, feedback is adialogue between the student and teacher.

-Fink, 2003

Feedback from audience

The best type of pet is

A. a dog B. a cat C. a fish D. a bird E. none of the above

What city are the current winter Olympic games being held?

A. Toronto B. Montreal C. Vancouver D. Calgary

True or false: Elephants are afraid of mice.

A. True B. False

Timeliness

To be most effective, feedback should be returned to students as soon as possible after the activity is completed.

A. True B. False

Research

Learners require regular, timely and user-friendly feedback in order to understand goals, to produce quality work, and to meet high standards.

~Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2007)

What is timely?

Focus and Structure

Feedback should focus on student errors.

A. True B. False

How to write good feedback

Focus on goals Make it instructional Make it timely Be positive

Use the Oreo Approach

No Feedback

Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse noting at least one similarity and one difference between the two animals. (10 points)

Vague Feedback

Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse noting at least one similarity and one difference between the two animals. (10 points)

Babbling

Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse noting at least one similarity and one difference between the two animals. (10 points)

Good Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse noting at

least one similarity and one difference between the two animals. (10 points)

You try it! Jane has a cell phone plan that costs her $30.00 a month

for 1000 minutes of air time plus 25 cents for each text message she sends during the month. Jane had 689 minutes of air time during January and she sent 100 text messages that month. What is Jane's cell phone bill for January? Explain how you calculated the bill.

Encouragement and Praise

Feedback is not the place to offer help or encouragement.

A. True B. False

Encouragement and Praise

Offering lots of general praise helps students to succeed.

A. True B. False

Feedback on opening activity

Research

Educative feedback IS provided For the sake of learning To encourage students

Educative Feedback IS NOT provided For the sake of rating a student's performance.

Praise and Encouragement

Avoid praise that focuses on student ability

Avoid false praise

Encourage students by Recognizing what they are doing correct Specifically stating what needs to change to achieve

success Asserting that students can be successful

Relationships

Feedback does not encourage relationships between students and instructors because students feel intimidated.

A. True B. False

Research

Acquiring knowledge requires Human interaction Communication oriented education model

The learning environment should include Meaningful and reflective interactions Many opportunities for feedback

Time Management

Providing detailed feedback takes a lot of time.

A. True B. False

Research

Using good feedback can help students Develop self-regulated learning Focus on goals Develop their own beliefs in their abilities to

learn

Students who are confident in their abilities and who are focused on goals become less dependent on the teacher!

Time Management Suggestions

Provide clear instructions up front

“Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse.”

Versus

“Compare and contrast an elephant and a mouse noting at least one similarity and at least one difference. Use correct spelling and grammar.”

Time Management Suggestions

Provide feedback for common errors to the entire class as opposed to individual students

“As I graded the homework, I saw that many students were forgetting to….”

Time Management Suggestions

Use a grading code

Underlined text is correct.

( ) √ means the material in the parentheses is incorrect.

( ) ? means I don’t understand the material in the parentheses.

Time Management Suggestions

Use rubrics Example

Time Management Suggestions

Use “premade” feedback and modify to fit the student Example

Student Perceptions

Feedback isn’t important because students won’t pay attention to it anyway.

A. True B. False

Research

Core behaviors to promote positive student-teacher interaction

Active learning experiences

Meaningful feedback

Behaviors are critical for both distance and face-to-face teaching

When is feedback most effective?

Student perceptions Student is confident of response, response is

correct = less effective Student is not confident of response, response is

not correct = less effective Student is confident of response, response is not

correct = student most receptive to feedback

When is feedback most effective?

Quality of performance

Most effective when it corrects misunderstandings

Least effective when student totally misunderstands concepts

Vehicles for Feedback

Written feedback is the most effective.

A. True B. False

Research

Effective feedback can be delivered via

Written communications

Audio recordings

Video recordings

Demonstration

Wrap-Up

Questions? Wiki SurveyMonkey Collaboration Evaluation