Feedback Strategies for C-I Teaching & Learning

Communication is a learned skill developed and refined over time. We cannot simply use a textbook and a standardized test to teach and assess the essential skill of communication. It is a transferable skill that requires iterative learning, and feedback is a significant component of the communication skills development process.

Most of us know, and remind our students and colleagues, of the golden rule of feedback: it is not about the person; it’s about the product. But it is not enough to stop at that. Effective feedback should spur improvement through clear, directive steps. It provides substantive and actionable content, and it is timely. Perhaps most importantly, these components combined keep the focus not only on the artefact, but on the reality that much of the work we do is collaborative in nature. Effective thinkers, makers and doers seek sounding boards. if we’re not testing the validity of our ideas, we’re likely not performing to our full potential. As teachers, our job is to create and foster useful sounding boards for our students so they can learn the material as well as learn the process of iterative practice.

Let’s unpack the elements of effective feedback and how to include substantive, actionable content in a timely fashion.

Purpose & Forms of Feedback

Examples & Feedback Prompts

Additional resources

Examples

This listing is a sampling of ideas for various situations; however, it is not exhaustive. 

• Some faculty have their students include a dear reviewer letter or checklist coverpage with the draft of their assignment. This is an opportunity for students to become better editors of their work. Additionally, when the grader reads the concerns raised in the letter, feedback becomes more efficient.

• Consider your communication options: spoken or video feedback (live or prerecorded) may be faster than written. Some faculty use VoiceThread inside Moodle to leave a spoken summary comment since spoken feedback can be faster and more personal. Feedback on drafts could involve a combination of markups within students’ individual files, plus one summary comment to the student or the class as a whole.

• In certain disciplines, so-called desk critiques are customary. As students work on their projects in class, the instructor talks to each student individually and provides brief, impromptu feedback. These sessions happen frequently and reinforce the idea of the iterative process.

• One-on-one or small-group conferences are impactful and may be conducted during office hours either onsite or remotely.

• For some faculty, rubrics are the way to go. Prior to submission, they present their rubrics to their students so they have the chance to ask questions, understand criteria, and see the components emphasized in grading. Rubrics can be useful for instructor-student feedback and peer review. 

• If rubrics don’t work for the course, simply set aside in-class time to answer questions about criteria and provide guidance. 

• One or two action items in bite-sized chunks, especially if well timed, are often more useful to a student than paragraphs of detailed comments. One round of feedback might focus on the introduction and main idea, while a subsequent round may be more concerned with precedent and sourcing.

• To avoid repeating themselves, some faculty use feedback banks or common error checklists.