Post 4: Feedback

Similar to the article by Hattie, I agree the feedback is a very important part in teaching and I was not surprised to see the evidence for it’s importance demonstrated in the article.

I believe there are some gaps between what Hattie recommends and my own practice and there is always room for improvement. Something I had already been thinking over during my initial months as an online instructor was the idea that I do not have a good sense of my students overall academic goals. Are they biology majors with an interest in the particular area of this course, are they exploring for possible topics of interest, need to take this course for some reason, or something else entirely. One of the three key questions in the article by Hattie is around understanding the student’s goals. I believe there are ways to improve in this area in an online environment and this article has gotten me to start thinking about possible solutions. One example would be that when students first enroll in the course I send a welcome email. I could add a question about the student’s interests and goals to that email and even if only some students respond, it would be a large increase in my understanding of their backgrounds and interests.

Another area that interested me in the article by Hattie was her emphasis on how peer feedback can be important and as instructors we should try to take advantage and may be missing out if we are not. There are some challenges here in an online environment and when not all students are moving through the course at the same time or pace; however, it is something to give more thought too.

Finally, the idea of feedback from the students struck me as particularly important. While I know there are student evaluations at the end of a course, if my feedback is not helping a particular student and I don’t find out until the end, then I have lost an opportunity to help that particular student. I have some students currently struggling and I am trying to provide effective feedback that will help them with the next assignments in the course, it would help to hear from them if my suggestions are helping before the end of course evaluations.

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