{"id":92,"date":"2019-04-08T22:33:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T05:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/?p=92"},"modified":"2019-04-25T15:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T22:48:59","slug":"timely-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/2019\/04\/08\/timely-feedback\/","title":{"rendered":"Timely Feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was talking with a colleague last week about the importance of providing our students with TIMELY FEEDBACK on their assignments, quizzes and exams. They asked me, \u201cwhat percentage of faculty do you think return student work within a week or two?\u201d We chatted about this and clearly I thought the percentage was MUCH higher than they did. In talking with students about this, I discovered that it is indeed the case that timely feedback is not as common as it should be. In some cases, students don\u2019t get the results of exam 1 until very late in the term. What?! I guess this one deserves some discussion.<\/p>\n

My Jan. 22, 2019 post was about STRATEGIES FOR QUALITY FEEDBACK<\/strong><\/a>, but it doesn\u2019t address the timing of that feedback. We all want our students to learn and I think most of us think that we\u2019re using a developmental approach during our classes where foundational material precedes application. But how do we expect students to learn from their mistakes and fill in the gaps if we don\u2019t guide them through that process early and often? Even if this isn\u2019t an area of struggle for you\u2026<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s all commit to a Spring Term Resolution \u2013 \u201cI will return my students\u2019 work within one week.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did the air just leave the room? This is an important goal, and here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Grades matter.<\/strong> They may not matter much to you, but they DEFINITELY matter to your students. Students want to learn for their future, sure, but they are taking your class as part of a package of classes that will earn them their degree. Students are usually quite laser focused on their GPA, especially if graduate school is next.<\/li>\n
  2. Formative assessments are critical, but they only work well if students receive the feedback in time to do something about it.<\/strong> Comments on an assignment returned four weeks after it was turned in likely have much less impact on a student\u2019s willingness or ability to re-learn fuzzy material than an assignment turned in last week.<\/li>\n
  3. Grades can motivate learning.<\/strong> Now this is not true for all students, but it is probably true for most. Research shows that students\u2019 grades regress to the mean (a low score on the first exam is usually followed by a higher grade on the next exam). But again, this only works if the feedback is timely. And if we\u2019re providing feedback using the sandwich method (positive comment \u2013 this is what you need to work on \u2013 positive comment), then we can both encourage what is going well and direct behaviors and outcomes that need more attention. Referrals to the Learning Lab for Tutoring are a great idea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I was talking with a colleague last week about the importance of providing our students with TIMELY FEEDBACK on their assignments, quizzes and exams. They asked me, \u201cwhat percentage of faculty do you think return student work within a week or two?\u201d We chatted about this and clearly I thought the percentage was MUCH higher… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1354215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5240"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}