Resources
- Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77, 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
- Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018). Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771992329.01
fa-book: Take some time to read chapter 1 of Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity.. It’s available online for free if you download the PDF.
Pay particular attention to the distinctions between assessment, evaluation, and formative and summative assessments.
Assessment and Feedback
While much focus is often placed on ‘teaching’ learners through various media and modalities (lecture, labs, practical experience, inquiry), relatively less is placed on the details of assessing student learning and assigning a letter grade. Too often, assessment of learning is relegated to a couple (multiple-guess) midterm exams, a major paper, and a final (multiple-guess plus a few written answers) exam. The result of this is that learners become stressed out about the high-stakes testing and assessment of learning and their performance suffers, particularly when the stakes are already high, such as in competitive-entry programs.
In the TWU facilitated model, however, the intent is to essentially decouple assessment from evaluation for the benefit of learners. Your task as a facilitator will be to provide formative feedback, primarily on the process in which learners are engaging with the learning materials and activities. Over time, you will become more familiar with the content, and you will begin to understand some of the content enough to provide formative feedback there as well. The faculty who is the instructor of the course will be responsible for summative feedback.
What is Feedback?
Please take a few minutes to read Hattie’s book section Feedback in schools (PDF download…sorry).
As you read, make note in particular of the three feedback questions, Where am I going?, How am I going? and Where to next? and also the four levels of feedback, task, process, self-regulation, and self.
facilitators don't need fb from an academic perspective, but translating faculty fb into actionable steps for students. focus on formative fb in coaching and facilitation settings
facilitating the relationship btwn faculty and learnerPeer Feedback
An under-appreciated form of feedback is peer feedback, where a learner’s peers provide feedback based on specific criteria. If you recall from Unit 6, there are several ways in which cooperative learning strategies like peer review can be effective.
Slavin found that, in addition to the social pressure for group members to help each other, there are cognitive benefits to both giving and receiving feedback from peers. For the learner giving feedback, there can be significant benefits from the processes of elaborating on explanations where the learner giving feedback needs to elaborate on their own understanding of the concept in order to explain it more clearly to their peer. Additionally, this models for the receiver how the giver thinks through the concept, giving them exposure to a wider variety of cognitive skills. The receiver also benefits from the provision of simplified explanations that are specific to their own concerns, from the ability to practice, and simply from receiving correction about their work.