Gathering student feedback is essential for enhancing the learning experience for instructors and students. It's also important to acknowledge student feedback, demonstrating responsiveness to students' concerns and a commitment to supporting their learning. OTLT supports various technology tools that facilitate student-to-student and student-to-instructor feedback.
Effective feedback should be frequent, specific, balanced, and timely. Frequent feedback helps students stay on track and make continuous improvements. Specific feedback provides clear guidance. Balanced feedback ensures that students receive positive reinforcement and opportunities for improvement. Timely feedback allows students to make adjustments while the material is still fresh in their minds.
Student-to-Student Feedback
Peerceptiv: This platform provides a structured process for peer review assignments, team evaluations, group assignments, and live presentations. Peerceptiv offers a simple interface, allows students to rate feedback, and includes a training assignment function to help students get accustomed to the peer review process.
ICON Peer Review: This tool facilitates peer review for group assignments. It offers manual and automatic peer review assigning, reviews can be provided after a submission has been uploaded and allows students to leave comments in a comment box or fill out a rubric created by the instructor.
ICON Discussion Forums: These forums allow students to engage in discussions and post text, video, and audio, and share files depending on the options selected for the forum. Ideas for use include student introductions, FAQ forums, spaces for collaboration and sharing, reflecting on complex content and ideas, and journaling.
Student-to-Instructor Feedback
Gathering feedback from students is helpful for practicing metacognitive strategies in the classroom. One effective way to do this is by using Classroom Assessment Tools (CATs). Examples include student reflection activities, ticket-out-the-door/3-2-1 exit tickets, one-minute papers, muddiest point exercises, think-pair-share activities, and exam wrappers. Try incorporating one of these activities with the technologies listed below.
Top Hat: An effective tool for promoting student reflection and learning. Top Hat is a student response system that allows instructors to add interactive questions to lectures, which students can answer using their own devices. It works well with on-campus and online courses, can be integrated into ICON, and is available to students through ICON Direct for a reduced price.
ICON Surveys and Quizzes: Quizzes in Canvas can be used to check student understanding and assess comprehension of course material. A great option is to use ICON Surveys which are similar to quizzes but are not graded, making them ideal for gathering feedback.
Qualtrics Surveys: This tool allows for the creation of anonymous surveys with branching options and various question types. It’s a versatile tool for gathering detailed and nuanced student feedback.
Incorporating technology tools for gathering student feedback can significantly enhance the learning experience. By leveraging peer review and metacognitive feedback strategies, educators can create a more interactive and reflective classroom environment. These tools not only help identify areas for improvement but also empower students to take an active role in their learning journey.
Email OTLT to schedule a consultation about how you can use technology to gather student feedback.