{"id":2713,"date":"2025-01-05T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2026-01-05T13:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T21:20:48","slug":"providing-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/providing-feedback\/","title":{"rendered":"Providing Feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_blurb _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

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Feedback is crucial to support students during their learning journey. However, research shows that students often do not read feedback (Leki, 1992), and if they do read it, they read it to understand their grade and only apply what they learn from feedback to the assignment on which it is given. Therefore, try to avoid giving too much feedback and error correction so that it is not overwhelming.\u00a0 Your aim is to provide feedback to help students improve their academic skills and learn (Walvoord & Anderson, 1998; Straub, 2000).<\/span><\/p>\n

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There are five key components to providing constructive feedback:<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Planned<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Feedback focused on the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) is most relevant to students<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Focused<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Do not provide students a \u2018blizzard\u2019 of feedback with each piece its own \u2018snowflake\u2019, but rather focus on two or three areas of feedback per assignment. Focus the feedback where it will be the most beneficial for the student, both to attain the course ILOs and for their learning process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Timely<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Provide feedback promptly while the assignment is still fresh as students are interested in receiving the feedback and learning it. Provide feedback early in the process to help students learn and improve their assignment and resulting grade (for example, consider having students submit a draft).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Applicable<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Think of it as \u201cfeedback\u201d and \u201cfeed-forward\u201d: what advice can you give that will help students do better on the next assignment, in the next course, and in their next year of study? If marking by hand, ensure your comments are legible and readable by all students. Consider typing the feedback if your handwriting is hard to read.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Neutral<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Remember that the words that you write on a student\u2019s paper can have a much more negative impact than you intended (see \u2018Feedback comments\u2019 section below). If you feel frustrated when marking, it is a good idea to set the marking aside, take a break, and do something a bit different until you can approach marking and feedback with a more neutral tone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  • Comment on things that are done well. \u00a0Don\u2019t just focus on what needs to be improved. For example, where someone has done a great job of marketing their skills, commend it to help boost their confidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Make comments that are constructive, kind, to the point, and actionable. \u00a0 When you think something can be improved, suggest ways to improve it.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Here are some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    • “It could be better if …”<\/span><\/li>\n
    • “This section is unclear \/ vague \/ not explained well enough. \u00a0Consider adding or changing …”<\/span><\/li>\n
    • \u201cIt is not clear how this is connected to the job description. Could you explain how this is relevant?”<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Before commenting, think about how you would like to receive feedback if someone was helping you with your application package.<\/span><\/p>\n

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      • What would you find helpful?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
      • What would make you feel frustrated or make you doubt you could improve your application?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        <\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Feedback is crucial to support students during their learning journey. However, research shows that students often do not read feedback (Leki, 1992), and if they do read it, they read it to understand their grade and only apply what they learn from feedback to the assignment on which it is given. Therefore, try to avoid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scie-201"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2717,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/2717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/sciencecoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}