The content of the lecture videos posed a question that I have been asking myself since becoming a passionate psychology professor: How do we make feedback better as educators without overloading ourselves?

We know that machine feedback is getting better with methods such as computer adaptive testing and diagnostic testing. These methods are ever more helpful in the digital age when computers are available 24/7 and human brains are not. However, two main issues in giving feedback persist: (a) teachers not providing feedback in a timely way and (b) students not having a clear avenue to request or receive that feedback. In my experience, a common experience among students of all ages is that they feel unsupported with no real sense of how they’re doing. In my continuing education, I have learned that giving timely and effective feedback on formative assessments are the best models to integrate into my e-learning ecologies.

In 1987, Chickering and Gamson wrote Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Thirty four years later, their insights ring as true as ever: “No feedback can occur without assessment. But assessment without timely feedback contributes little to learning.” Frequent feedback is different for formative and summative assessments. In formative assessments, I find that it is best to give a quick turnaround for short, low-stakes assignments. On the other hand, taking my time for major assessments is a better model because it allows students’ brains to rest and process. In this last semester, I have finally learned to automate my feedback process by keeping a working Google Doc of common feedback comments that I write to students. This template allows me to communicate the same message over and over with minor adjustments to each student. In addition to my personal template, I employ the strategy of setting deadlines strategically. In this way, I consider my own availability for providing feedback. Since I know that I like to take a break from my computer on Sundays, I no longer set assignment due dates for Sunday night. In the digital age of instant responding, our students have been conditioned to expect immediate responses. Now, my syllabus includes language such as: “Every Wednesday your ___ will be due, every Saturday your ___ will be due.” The purpose of this type of targeted and timely guidance is, as always, to develop student self-efficacy.

The above methods are tips and tricks I’ve implemented on my own. In the future, I would like to involve my students as partners in feedback. The techniques that I would like to implement are: (a) three-color group quiz with feedback on product, process, and progress; (b) midterm student conferencing; (c) shared revision of student generated questions and statements; and (d) timely feedback using collaborative assignment blogs (Fluckiger et al., 2010). The combination of recursive feedback, educational technology, and interactive learning environments permits researchers to investigate whether there are individual differences in seeking and using feedback (Goldin et al., 2017). Such an empirical approach can be powerful when combined with design-based research to advance our understanding of the role of feedback.

Chickering, A., & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. Washington Center News. https://www.lonestar.edu/multimedia/SevenPrinciples.pdf 

Fluckiger, J., Tixier y Vigil, Y., Pasco, R., & Danielson, K. (2010). Formative feedback: Involving students as partners in assessment to enhance learning. College Teaching, 58(4), 136-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2010.484031
Goldin, I., Narciss, S., Foltz, P., & Bauer, M. (2017). New directions in formative feedback in interactive learning environments. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 27, 385-392.