Assessment

Providing the Right Feedback

Providing students with early and frequent feedback on multiple performances spreads the assessment to several graded assignments and tests and allays student anxiety. Here are some examples of how to apply feedback mechanisms to a variety of assessments.

Feedback on Weekly Quizzes

• Discussion posts. Instructor posts quiz question(s) at a specified time in the discussion area and students must post replies(and discuss with peers) by specified time.
• Online chats. Instructor uses chat function at specified time to quiz students, generally one-on-one-a more time-consuming approach but instructors can determine student progress.
• Objective testing. In myCourses or other applications for objective and short answer quizzes.

Feedback on Minute Papers

Minute papers are a quick one-minute check on knowledge, or a test of a skill. Minute papers can be used to assess concept knowledge, ability to solve problems, or simply to demonstrate ability to find and report information. RIT Professor Paul Craig uses minute papers to have students report what they are learning and to find out where they are encountering problems. By requiring this regular feedback and expecting questions from all students (not just those bold enough to ask), he is preventing confusion from impeding learning, and causing students to reflect on their own learning process.