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What students can do with feedback
What students can do with feedback
Before I assign a paper or a presentation, I ask myself what a student will be able to do with my comments. If the only answer is “read them after the grade is in,” I look for a place to offer feedback earlier. I want students to have time to try a change and explain why they made it.
I’ve taught workplace communications, political science, health administration and management in Canadian colleges and universities. Teaching online and in person across northern communities has shaped what I pay attention to. A student opening a course from another community should be able to find the task, understand what good work looks like and locate feedback from the last attempt.
Explore the teaching examples
Explore the teaching examples
Choose an assignment or project to see the task, what students or instructors did, and how feedback informed the next step.
A résumé for a real job
A résumé for a real job
In ENGL 110, students chose a job posting and drafted a résumé for that position. We removed identifying details for peer review. That gave each reviewer a concrete question. Which details in this résumé show that the applicant can do the work in the posting?
Students revised the résumé and wrote a 300-word reflection on the feedback they used. What interests me is the writer’s judgement. A student can explain why one suggestion helped and why another did not fit the job.
A thesis that can change
A thesis that can change
In POLS 100, students proposed a thesis and identified at least five sources before drafting their term paper. Reading the proposal gave me a chance to ask whether the evidence could support the claim while the writer still had time to narrow it.
Next time, I would ask for a short revision note with the paper. What changed in the thesis or the choice of evidence, and why? That note would help me see how a student used the feedback between drafts.
Finding the next step online
Finding the next step online
At Northern Lights College, I worked with an education technology specialist and faculty colleagues to give Brightspace courses a common place for weekly guidance, assignments and feedback. An English instructor can use that space for a résumé and a health administration instructor for an analysis of the Canadian health system. Each decides what the task requires.
To evaluate that design, I would ask a student entering an unfamiliar course to find the first assignment, explain its requirements and locate feedback. Where the student pauses or searches twice tells me more about the navigation than a checklist of completed course sections.
Learning alongside faculty
Learning alongside faculty
I use the same approach to feedback in the four-day Instructional Skills Workshop I designed. Each instructor teaches three mini-lessons. The presenter reflects first, and peers describe what they actually did or understood as learners.
If a pair completes an activity but one learner never tries it independently, the presenter can protect a minute for an individual response in the next lesson. That gives the group something specific to observe the second time.
What I would change next
What I would change next
In HADM 310, students developed a paragraph about a Canadian health-system topic into a scholarly essay, then explained their learning in five slides. I would keep the early topic check and give students a rubric before they draft.
I want students to see how I will judge the quality of their analysis, their use of evidence and the clarity of their explanation. I would compare the early paragraph with the final essay to see which decisions the student made and where my instructions could be clearer.
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