Feedback

As a graduate student, feedback was one of those things I didn’t care about getting until I actually stopped getting it. To be honest, a letter grade and an adjective has begun to make me feel like:

a) the instructor has skimmed my work, and is now assigning the prerequisite grade because it needs to be entered into the system
b) the process of taking courses is to get enough credits to enter into the system, then carry on with the real work (the research and the thesis)

As an instructional designer, I am aware of the pedagogical reasons why feedback is important, but understand that it is difficult for instructors to undertake. Providing feedback that is constructive and not ego damaging takes an incredible amount of precious time–and, lets face it, many instructors love the teaching part of instruction but loathe the assessment part.

I was happy to find this reference because I think it provides a simple, well presented set of suggestions for providing feedback to distance students. I especially like the strategies that they provide, since we so often talk to instructors at the level of the importance of feedback but often neglect to mention simple strategies for being able to provide it.

There are also some other good resources on this site that are worth perusing…