Written Feedback on Written Assignments and Assessments

Written Feedback on Written Assignments and Assessments

Date: Thursday, February 29th, 2024

Time: 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. (AT) / 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. (ET) / 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. (PT)

Registration link

Workshop Description:

The saying “feedback is a gift” is often attributed to American philanthropist, businessman, and investor Warren Buffet, but in our teaching and learning contexts from both faculty members’ and students’ perspectives, feedback isn’t always bowties and surprise. Feedback as a mode of instruction is often met with dissatisfaction and can even feel anticlimactic: too much time to write and relay (for faculty); too much time to read and reflect on (for students). I’m just wanting/needing the numeric grade (from students); I’m just wanting/needing to help you improve and transform (from faculty).

Written feedback on all kinds of written assignments and assessments – from short pieces like reflection papers and discussion posts, through longer pieces like traditional essays and project reports, to creative pieces like narratives and screenplays – is a critical, pedagogical part of students’ learning not just about disciplinary content and knowledges but about communication conventions, norms, and strategies. In this workshop, we will start will identifying these pedagogical benefits of providing effective feedback on students’ written assignments and assessments before we explore some strategies to ensure that the time, effort, and heart faculty put into providing feedback fuels learning potential and embraces purposeful curiosity for our students. We will wrap up with considering the challenges, opportunities, as well as affordances and constraints of these strategies for improving our feedback processes.