For today's post, I thought I would talk about lessons learned from giving feedback in online learning environments. I have taken, TA'd, and taught online, hybrid, and in-person university and college courses for some time. Online learning is the wave of the future, but we want to make sure that we do this is a way that is impactful and high quality.
Many of us uphold high standards in our classes, and give feedback to help our students learn how to do things better. This can include giving praise, prompting or cuing for more information, explaining why something is incorrect, etc. In other words, we try to provide formative (developmental) feedback, as well as summative (final, end-of-semester) feedback, to communicate how well the student's work corresponds to the expectations for the assignment or exam.
One important thing I discovered years back when teaching online courses is that students will take some forms of feedback more personally and in an emotional manner than they will other types of feedback. This is important because emotional reactions can lead to misunderstandings between well-meaning faculty and students, and the student may lose interest or become frustrated in an otherwise important course. However, in some cases this was easily solved by simply changing the language we use to provide feedback.
Simply put, my own experience as an instructor and as a supervisor of teaching assistants, taught me to: (a) personalize the praise; and (b) depersonalize the constructive criticism. Using an example, there were huge differences in the number of complaints I received related to teaching assistants when comparing these two different types of feedback. Here they are, and how they differ.
Personalized versus Depersonalized Praise
Essentially, the difference is between saying, "You did a great job" versus "Great job"! Generally, there is little difference in student reactions to these types of phrases. "Excellent draft" versus "You wrote an excellent draft!" also typically results in little difference in terms of interactions with students. However, when there are constructive, critical comments that need to be made along with praise, personalizing at least one aspect of the praise does seem to make a difference. For example, if a student had a number of revisions to make, finding one or two things to praise is important and tends to result in less frustration on the part of the student. Even if the writing is full of errors, etc., one could always state something positive about the choice of topic. However, be sure that the praise is something that is praise-worthy, and not something like, "Good margins!".
Personalized versus Depersonalized Constructive Criticism
Here is where the reactions of students really differ, and usually lead to flurries of interactions between the student and professor, and possible the chair or head of the department. It seems like such a small thing, but providing depersonalized constructive criticism is usually better received than personalize constructive criticism. Consider giving feedback on a grammatically incorrect sentence. Here are two possibilities:
- You need to correct the grammar in this sentence
- This sentence is grammatically incorrect
Now, it is worth pointing out that I do not believe the instructor or TA were being rude or disrespectful. In fact, knowing these wonderful people in person, I know that if the course were in-person the way in which they would say the exact same sentence would come across in an entirely different way. However, without the benefit of facial expression, body language, and tone/modulation of voice, the recipient of the feedback may hear it differently "in their head" when reading the feedback.
A few more points that you might find helpful:
- DON'T USE ALL CAPS because it sounds like you are yelling. Of course, ONE or TWO words in a sentence might be all right, as long as it is not personalized constructive feedback!
- Try to avoid typos and grammatical mistakes on your own part. If you have problems with spelling and grammar, consider typing out your comments in Word or a similar app to check your writing first. Be the model you want your students to follow.
If you happen to read this as a student, please know that your professors and instructors really care about giving you feedback. If you get feedback that seems rude or disrespectful, take a little time to read it out loud using a helpful voice to see if you can act and react differently to it.
Final Comments
This information is meant to help us think about how we provide written feedback. This approach will not solve every problem, but I have found it to be helpful to both those who provide, to those who receive, feedback. Perspective-taking is important in this process, and takes a while to develop. I know that I am still learning, and as I teach and research these topics, more will be learned. Iterative processes are like that.
(In case you would like to read any of my earlier publications, here is a link to Google Scholar.)
Many thanks to Dr. Michael Christie for his helpful feedback on this post. Any mistakes are my own, and I take full responsibility for them.
Darlene Crone-Todd, Ph.D.
