Feedback

**Feedback has been long recognized as a key component for successful learning. The most effective feedback is that which is immediate and also provides explicit information on how performance can be improved. How do you accomplish this in the online environment? **

According to the research stated in “SUPPORTING ASYNCHRONOUS DISCUSSIONS AMONG ONLINE LEARNERS” there is a divide amongst two schools of thought on distance learning – one that supports flexible unpaced learning (asynchronous) as espoused by Holmberg and Keegan, 1990, and the other (synchronous) that follows a more traditional approach which espouses specific start and end dates, and cohorts of students as espoused by Garrison, 1989.

At New School for Community Service, where I teach, there are possibilities for both types of offerings. We have a significant number of students throughout the year who are out of school because of maternity leave, medical, legal, and other reasons. For these students the asynchronous approach would seem appropriate. Another need has arisen at New School for Community Service because of the small nature of the school. With a teaching staff of eight, we experience problems with teacher licensure and student programming needs. In other words, there sometimes exists a situation where the school has a number of students who need a particular class, but the school does not have someone on staff with the appropriate licensure to teach it. In this case a synchronous offering taught by an outside teacher would be effective and appropriate. This would expand the teaching staff with minimal cost as well.

With regard to feedback, and according to Virgil Varvel in the March/April 2001 Pointer and Clicker article – Facilitating Every Student in an Online Course, both offerings require that the facilitator possess certain attributes. Among those are timeliness – the necessity of the facilitator to regularly check for student posts and respond appropriately in a previously specified amount of time. Motivation beyond the grade is also important. This can be accomplished by building in “discovery” type activities. For example, a student could be asked to find a website, ask a question of their own, or expand on a current or previous posting. The facilitator must also make their presence felt. This not only relates to timeliness, but can be used as a means to have students get to know their instructor by providing students with biographical information or other personal experiences which would give students a “mental image” of who the instructor is. In all cases the instructor should be a model for effective communication in the virtual environment, and provide encouragement, especially if students fall behind.  In addition to the above benefits, and in Using Peer Feedback to Enhance the Quality of Student Online Postings: An Exploratory Study, the student in the synchronous setting enjoys further benefit when “effective discussions progress to include both reflection and critical thinking” (Black, 2005). When students give each other constructive feedback they are participating in each others learning experience which may lead to a greater understanding of the course material, and an appreciation of other students’ experiences and backgrounds. These interactions also may promote students’ satisfaction with the course (Richardson & Swan, 2003).