Hello this is Raquel Hernandez your instructor for Performance and Assessment in the Virtual Classroom. Welcome to week five lesson one. This week our focus will be on assessment instructional feedback and how to monitor performance using technology. The objective for today will be to describe the importance of instructional feedback, in the virtual setting for both computer-graded and teacher-graded assignments. Now, let's first talk about the absence of feedback. Many times, if an instructor is not providing feedback, it sends a negative message, even when nothing is actually said. The best instructor can give a negative view of the course just by not doing something. In these cases, usually the instructor is doing everything else right. They're posting announcements, emailing students, calling and responding to parents, but if the student is not receiving feedback on their work, questions start arising. Students start asking themselves if they're doing something wrong. Why is the teacher not noticing my work? Many times the effort level actually goes down in a class in which the teacher is not responding because the effort is not being rewarded. Students begin to feel lost in the course. Especially in the virtual world, students may have a perception that their work is just being submitted into cyberspace with a feeling that it might be lost. Even if an assignment is just returned with a numeric grade, there's something lost in the interaction there. After all, the assignments are like a contract with the teacher, and a factor on which they will be judged in the course. This is kind of a contract, so to speak. As time goes on the students wonder if they're doing something wrong even if their scores are good. And then they wonder if they'll get recognition for the time and energy spent on the assignments, and if it's really even worth it to spend a lot of time on assignments if the teacher's really not going to look at the assignments or submit the proper feedback. Instructional feedback provides a relationship building pattern for the student and the teacher. Most students take feedback seriously. Some a little more than others. But it can take the relationship on a positive path or a negative one. Especially early on in the semester, it is important to set the foundation by building a positive relationship based on instructional feedback. The feedback becomes a dialogue between the instructor and the student. Especially in the beginning of the semester, the feedback needs to be more than, good job or redo this please. This is a tremendous opportunity for the teacher to set the expectations, define behavior standards, and guide students on their journey through your course. And also reinforce the desired outcomes. What is it you want them to do and how do they know when they're doing it? With each passing assignment the process can start all over again until you shape the behavior. The expectations are set, and the teacher can work on small refinements with each and every passing assignment. Does it take time? Absolutely. The rewards, however, will come back many times over as the students will perform above and beyond the required expectations. That is, if the teacher knows and designs his or her instructional feedback in a way that shapes behavior. So how does this all work? Instructional feedback can and does shape behavior. The instructor can reward effort in approximation through his or her words of encouragement. Then instructional feedback actually becomes a lesson in and of itself. The teacher can use this opportunity to provide additional resources and links to help students dig deeper into the topic, provide support and mentorship. The feedback almost becomes one on one tutoring, if the student and instructor chooses. These techniques will help reinforce the desired outcomes, and the students will start moving towards the desired outcomes of the course, improve their assessment scores and assignment quality. Never underestimate the power of words to cause this change. At the same time never underestimate the implications of negative feedback. Virtual teachers ask me this all the time. What if the student shows no activity? The question arises then, does the teacher need to be reaching out to the student? In this case, I would suggest that if you have reached out to the student to contact him or her with a reminder to complete the assignments, use these helpful hints. So I would say, hi, I see you've not completed this assignment. Don't worry, I'm here to help. I'm having a virtual class tomorrow at 1:00 PM and would like for you to come. Here's the link. In the meantime, here's a video to help you get started. Many times, I would get a response back from the student indicating that they wanted to start. They either have a technical issue, or maybe they, they just need a little bit of motivation. They just need to know that you're willing to help them. Then include a navigation tip maybe or a video to help them get started. Once a student becomes active you can start your regular instructional feedback with the student. However, keep reaching out, keep giving some kind of interaction and effort until there is activity or the student drops a class and just decides that it's not for them. This is something I hear a lot from new virtual teachers, woo-hoo, I don't have to worry about all these assignments. They're computer scored. My course has so many computer graded assignments, I don't have to respond. Actually, just the opposite it true. Many times a student will feel isolated in a course that's entirely computer scored or has a majority of the items that are computer scored. And we've discussed having that balance in the past, but in case you are presented with a situation where you have a course that has a lot of computer scored items, it is important to be prepared. Now most LMS programs will provide and score answers once the student submits a computer graded assignment. This is helpful to some students, but not to others. Many students in virtual schools report that the feedback from their actual teacher is more important to them than the canned computer feedback. So here's some promising practices in this area. In the grade book you can scan for computer scored items and provide feedback in the comment boxes. Use a free download like Hot Keys or some kind of a keyboard shortcut or a clip program to help you. So try to gear the feedback to the lesson. Instead of good job, write something like, it looks like you have a good understanding of California history. I hope you're enjoying learning about the history of the Missions. Come to our next live class and we will preview the transcontinental railroad which made its way through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Now if the student did not do well, provide meaningful feedback, then redirect them to the expectations of that lesson. Look for common errors that are happening and maybe create a video on that or provide a link to some practice problems. What you don't want to do is make the feedback so general that they won't be able to think it's just for them. You could say, for example, great effort, and thanks for getting this in by the due date. Here is a video to help you with the establishment of the Mission in San Diego. We will meet next Wednesday to review this. Then would you like to redo this assignment? Now, if you can see the class is making common errors, like a certain math concept or grammar rules, direct them to a video or other resource to help. Sometimes a pod cast sent out to the class helps as well. Providing instruction for teacher graded items gives a student an indication that you are aware of their progress and not just letting the computer do all the work. This sends a message that you are sincerely interested in their educational progress. For teacher-graded assignments there is a higher expectation on the part of the student that they will receive feedback. These assignments generally take more effort on the part of the student and more grading effort on the part of the instructor. The best way I have found to work on these is to preview the assignment and create a short video or screen-cast or podcast ahead of time with feedback. You don't have to provide the answer key, but address common errors and give general direction regarding the expectations of the assignment. For personalized feedback there are several ways to do this. The best practice is to create feedback tools and links which we will talk about in the next section. The feedback for a teacher graded assignment is a teachable moment which can be used to re-define the expectation, direct the students and review the concepts again. When I create feedback I always sandwich any redirecting between praise. Start the feedback with a positive comment or friendly greeting. Then, redirect the student on areas for improvement. Finally reinforce the effort the student made and invite them to the next live session. This technique helps build positive relationships, continues the learning process and plants the seed for the next interactive live time with the students. [BLANK_AUDIO]
