How to deliver effective feedback online
Depending on when you give your feedback, it can be:
- Synchronous: you give feedback and students receive it at the same time, in interaction
- Asynchronous: you give feedback and students receive it later, deferred
Depending on how you present the content, it can be:
- Oral: you record an audio or a video to give the comment. You may use a visual support, such as an extract of your student’s work, to support your discourse.
- Written: you use text to write your comments. You may add comments on your student’s task directly, in the instrument you use to assess their work, or in any other document or platform.
In this unit, we encourage you to use multimodal feedback.
Reflection activity:
In online learning, it’s essential to plan how and when to give this feedback, because teaching conditions might be completely different to the face-to-face context. In order to plan your feedback delivery, start by considering the conditions of your online teaching modality:
- Is it synchronous or asynchronous?
- How much synchronous time per day/week (if any) do I have with my students?
- Do I get to see them through a videoconference?
- Do you have the possibility to have a one-on-one time with each student?
What is multimodal feedback?
Multimodal assessment feedback is feedback provided to students on their assignments either by a short (2-5 minutes), unscripted, unedited video speaking directly to each student through a webcam, screencasting, or a combination of the two.
Here are some reasons why you should start giving multimodal feedback:
How to make multimodal feedback?
- Pick a quiet place. Although it might be challenging to find a quiet place in which to make your recordings, it’s better to keep everyone focused in the “online classroom” environment. Also, if there is too much noise or too many distractions, you won’t be able to get your message across.
- Your face should be clearly visible. Just like in your online synchronous sessions, the student should be able to see your face. Pick a spot where the light is on you and adjust your laptop distance or webcam so that your face and shoulders are visible.
- Keep file size low. Recording in 4K or full HD resolution is unnecessary. If your students can see your facial expressions and clearly hear your voice, your video quality is good enough. Keeping the file size low will keep your files manageable. You’ll be able to share them in any LMS (Moodle, Google Classroom…) or communication tool (email, instant messaging…).
You have several options depending on what you want to show:
- Record yourself only. You can use a camera or your phone and transfer the files to your computer. You can also use a webcam connected to your computer, and it will save the video directly there.
- Record your screen only. In this option, you can choose to record audio and the screen at the same time. Students will be able to hear you and see the screen, but they won’t be able to see you. The way you do this depends on the device you have.
- Record both your screen and your face. In this option, you’ll be able to record your screen and yourself in a small corner of your screen. Again, the way you do this depends on the device you have.
Once you have recorded your feedback, it’s time to make it available for your students.
- If you’re using a LMS (Learning Management System) such as Moodle or Google Classroom, you can upload it there directly.
- If you’re not using a LMS, you can share it via email. If the file is too large, you can use other options, like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or WeTransfer.
- REMEMBER! Avoid uploading the feedback files to a public platform like YouTube, so as to protect student privacy.