Giving Effective Feedback to Online Learners

Providing feedback to learners is one of the basic responsibilities of an educator. Whether or not the educator is facilitating a face-to-face course, an online learning event, or anything in between (such as a hybrid or blended learning class), feedback is critical for learners to understand how they are performing on assignments and other classroom activities.

How feedback is provided in online courses versus traditional face-to-face courses is different, though, for several reasons. When instructors provide face-to-face feedback, learners have multiple ways of gathering information. They can listen to, or “take in” what the instructor is saying to them, but they can also read body language and detect non-verbal cues, such as tone and syntax. They can take notes, ask questions, paraphrase to clarify, and probe for additional information, and the instructor can respond to the student immediately. When providing face-to-face feedback, a good deal of information can be communicated to the learner in a relatively short period, and immediate, back-and-forth communication can be used to help the learner best understand the feedback.

Providing feedback in an online course is a little different for several reasons. Because we can talk much faster than we can write, the sheer amount of feedback online instructors provide to their learners is typically less than they might provide in a face-to-face conversation. In online education, feedback is rarely provided immediately, especially in asynchronous courses. Instead, it is usually in the form of written comments made by the instructor and sent to the student. It also may be read by the learner soon after it is received, or later, or not at all. To get clarification or to ask further questions, learners have to initiate conversations with their instructors (which may take time to do) and also wait for responses. Non-verbal cues and body language are not present in written online feedback either. All of this means there is much more room for misinterpretation and misunderstanding, and much more opportunity for students to miss feedback or ignore it altogether.

For these reasons, giving feedback to online learners can be more difficult. However, there are some effective ways of providing feedback to online learners that instructors should understand. If the instructor focuses on the timeliness in  providing  initial feedback and in responding to students’ questions about feedback provided, then lag times in the feedback cycle can be reduced. Advances in technology can also allow feedback to be provided in many ways beyond the notating of written comments on students’ work.

In providing effective feedback to online learners, there are “Three Ts” to keep in mind:

• Timeliness of feedback
• Type of feedback
• Technology used to provide feedback

Altogether, each of these Three Ts can help address some of the obstacles associated with providing feedback in online education.

Timeliness

The first of the Three Ts, timeliness, is an aspect of giving feedback that is universal, regardless of instructional method used. Timeliness is important regardless of the method of instruction being used, but it is particularly important for online learners, given they typically do not have immediate contact with instructors and colleagues like they might in a face-to-face course. Feedback should always be timely; provided to the learner as soon as possible after the learner’s performance of a task or submission of an assignment. In discussing feedback for online learners, Conceição and Howles note that “timing of feedback can have an effect on learners’ motivation and performance” [1]. They define timely feedback as being regular, consistent, and prompt. Promptness of feedback is especially important when learners have multiple assignments to complete in a course. Feedback on one assignment should be provided in time so learners can incorporate it in subsequent assignments [2].

Type

Not all feedback is the same. Different types of feedback have different purposes and different goals. Conceição and Howles note five different types or categories of feedback that are effective for online instructors to use.

They are as follows:   

• Praise. Defined as the positive comments on an aspect of a student’s work that indicate approval of that work, praise-type comments can be motivational by pointing out students’ achievements and helping them believe in themselves [3]
• Encouragement. Defined as feedback that focuses on effort, and the instructor’s belief in the student’s ability to figure something out or to perform a task [4]. Encouragement is designed to give the student confidence that they can do something (or understand something) going forward.
• Recognition of insightful learning. Insight is defined as “the ability to have a clear, deep, and sometimes sudden understanding of a complicated problem or situation” [5]. Recognition of insightful learning should be applied when students have demonstrated extraordinary insight in addressing course projects or assignments.
• Constructive criticism. The basic idea behind constructive criticism is that the object criticized (a learner’s assignment, in this case) should be able to be improved by the instructor providing information on the gap between what was actually done and an ideal or standard [6]. Effective constructive criticism includes two parts: It first helps the learner to understand where they may have gone wrong or erred, and secondly, provides information on what they might have done to bring the work up to an ideal or standard. Conceição and Howles note that “using an optimistic tone during constructive criticism can impact learners’ performance positively [1].
• Rewards.  This type of feedback may be provided to learners who go above and beyond standards for performance. When a student goes above and beyond, acknowledgement of that performance is appropriate. In addition to written rewards or acknowledgements in the form of feedback from the instructor, rewards may include bonus points or extra credit on assignments [1].

In addition to the five basic types of feedback, there is an additional type that should be included here, and that relates to the personal acknowledgement in students’ work. Learners sometimes include funny examples or anecdotes in their assignments,  acknowledging those humorous instances with a smile-face emoji or a “haha” goes a long way toward building a connection with learners and also shows learners that the instructor is human. Of course, it is important to be careful when using humor so nobody is offended, but the use of “safe” humor can be an effective tool. Conversely, learners sometimes share difficult or upsetting personal details or stories in their work, and responding with messages of support or acknowledgement also helps to build connections with the learner.

Types of feedback can be used in combination with each other. For example, it is effective to use praise followed by constructive criticism or negative comments to help balance negativity, which means the student is more likely to accept and incorporate the constructive criticism or negative comments [3].

With all types of feedback, the more specific the feedback, the more likely the learner is to understand and incorporate it. Overall statements like “Good job” are not as effective as “Your third point in this paragraph is particularly important, as it demonstrates your understanding of XYZ concept.”

Feedback that is constructive, or that includes suggestions for improvement might be written as follows: “You do a good job of explaining XYZ concept. Now include some practical examples of that concept in action” or “Consider including more detail on XYZ concept to develop a stronger argument for your point.”

Feedback should focus both on individual or singular aspects of an assignment as well as on the overall assignment [2]. “Overall, you do a good job of making a case for your use of theory X, theory Y, and theory Z in the building of your structural framework” is an example of concise overall feedback.

An additional point on constructive criticism-type feedback is noted here:  To provide constructive criticism feedback, it is first important to have clearly defined guidelines for all assignments. The use of rubrics is a good way to clearly state all requirements for an assignment, which, in turn, makes it easier for the instructor to point out the gaps between what the learner did and what the assignment guidelines called for. This makes providing constructive criticism much more straightforward.

Technology

The most common way instructors provide feedback to online learners is through comments written on learner assignments. While this has long been the standard for providing feedback, and is certainly an acceptable way of doing so, technological advances have made it possible for instructors to provide feedback in other ways that may help bridge the gap between online instructor and learner. The use of video-based technology, for example, can allow instructors to record video clips that learners can view when they get their assignments back from the instructor. As previously stated, because we can talk much faster than we can write, this medium allows for a lot more feedback (in terms of quantity) than written comments, and it also takes on a more conversational-type tone that can help the learner feel part of the class or group. Advances in learning management systems make giving video-based feedback to learners easier every day.

Instructors can also set up video-based synchronous meetings with learners to provide feedback. Online meetings must be scheduled in advance, which may be difficult given the busy lives of adult learners. However, an online conversation with an instructor can allow for an actual, real-time conversation between the instructor and the learner, and this addresses many of the barriers associated with the giving of effective feedback that were discussed earlier in this article.

Summary

All learners are entitled to meaningful feedback on their course assignments, and one of the most important jobs of an instructor is to provide that feedback. Online students are no exception, but providing effective online feedback can be more difficult and more time-consuming. Considering the Three Ts of effective feedback in this article can help instructors to provide that meaningful feedback that will, hopefully, result in the learner’s continuous improvement. 

References

About the Author

Steven W. Schmidt is a professor of adult education and the Adult Education Program Coordinator in the Higher, Adult, and Counselor Education Department at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in adult education from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Schmidt’s major areas of research and writing activity include workplace training and development, cultural competence, and online teaching and learning.

Dr. Schmidt served on the board of directors for the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) from 2009–2015, including a term as president of the association in 2014. He also served as chair of the AAACE Commission for Professors of Adult Education (CPAE) from 2019–2021. He was the recipient of the AAACE Presidential Award for Exceptional and Innovative Leadership in Adult and Continuing Education in 2022. His research studies have been published in a variety of journals, and he has made presentations at national and international conferences. Additionally, he serves on editorial review boards of several major journals that focus on adult education and human resource development. He is the author of two books: Case Studies and Activities in Adult Education and Human Resource Development and Organization and Administration of Adult Education Programs.

Prior to joining the faculty of East Carolina University in 2006, Schmidt spent 18 years in the Fortune 500, working in the areas of marketing, public relations, and employee training and development.