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Snapshot

Type of Interaction: Student with content
Type of Course: Any
LMS Used: TRACS (any)
Tools Used: None

Credit
Terry Bertling, Mass Comm and Lindy Kosmitis, English

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Individualized Guidance Using Quiz Feedback

You may have noticed your quiz tool lets you add feedback to each question in your quiz. If so, you probably thought, “Wouldn’t that be nice? I don’t have time to write feedback for every question.” And I get it. We’re all very busy. But sometimes, spending the time writing feedback is worth it. What if your course has too many students for you to engage one on one? What if you get too little workload for the course? What if the course had to be shorter than a typical semester?

Terry Bertling and Lindy Kosmitis asked themselves these questions. They decided that for MC 1100B – Grammar for Journalists, taking the time was worth it. With only one credit hour’s worth of workload, they would teach 75 students in only four weeks. Students must earn a C or better, and many of them struggle to achieve this. Terry and Lindy needed a way to help them all. But giving individual guidance based on each student’s abilities wasn’t feasible. Auto-graded quizzes were already a clear necessity for grading. Quizzes would reveal where students were weak. Adding question feedback could point students to the individual help they need.

Feedback Designed for Context

Terry and Lindy next considered what kind of feedback to write. They could (re)explain the answer, but they wanted to encourage student initiative. Instead of giving away the explanation, they decided to tell students where to look for it. They had already created and curated instructional materials for students to learn from. The materials were of good quality and level-appropriate, so why not encourage their use?

The feedback phrasing struck a balance between specific and general. The feedback for one question on pronoun agreement reads:

“Please review the sections of PowerPoint 1.4 on Pronoun Agreement.”

On the one hand, the instruction is specific. It is clear enough for students to know exactly which resource (and section thereof) to look in. On the other hand, the explanation of the content is general. It doesn’t explain the rationale for the correct answer. Students must engage with the context of what they got wrong. They must work to situate the knowledge within what they already know.

Feedback Designed for Engagement

Terry and Lindy also recognized they needed to get students to use the feedback. They needed to tell students it was there and to look for it. They sent an announcement, posted it on the course website, and added a note in the syllabus.

They also wanted to give students an incentive to use it. Since grades motivate students, Lindy and Terry would give them a path to higher grades. Students could take each quiz twice and earn the higher grade. Feedback from the first quiz attempt would show students what to study. Then, they could expect to do better the second time.

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You, too, might have a course where you have more time before it starts than during. A bit of strategic preparation makes a big impact. Quiz feedback is worth trying. You could even try mapping the question to existing content instead of writing a rationale. You may find it takes less time than you think.