Assessment and feedback are key parts of the learning cycle. Meaningful feedback is especially important to learning, as it provides students with detailed information about their work that helps guide them toward enhanced understanding of a subject, as well as mastery of the skills required to deliver a longer-term assignment in a professional and impactful manner. Meaningful feedback is specific, timely, and purposeful. It can be solicited and delivered to a student by an instructor, a peer, or an external practitioner in the field. As with an assessment, feedback can be a blend of qualitative and quantitative observations.
Assessment is a measurement or evaluation of a student’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. It can help an instructor determine a student’s grasp and understanding of a subject and skill set, and be used as a basis for giving feedback. Assessments can be designed in many different formats, from the more traditional multiple-choice quiz or research paper, to a self-reflection journal, to asking a student to a design a game, a website, or an educational curriculum.
Feedback and assessments online can be designed and delivered using a variety of platforms and formats, some of which are outlined below. It’s recommended you provide both formative and summative assessments and feedback to students during the semester, and that you solicit feedback from your students in return, to help give you a barometer of how the course is going for them to date, and to allow you time to make adjustments as needed or desired.
Formative assessment & feedback
Formative assessment and feedback is ongoing and typically low-stakes. It allows students to gauge where their strengths and weaknesses fall, as well as better understand what skills and knowledge their instructor is looking for. Formative assessment allows an instructor to catch and address student struggles and misunderstandings early-on, and provide guidance to bolster student understanding prior to submission of a higher-stakes assignment. Examples of formative assessment and feedback include:
- Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are ungraded, in-class activities that are rich in feedback opportunities. Examples of CATs include Application Cards (asking students to provide a real-world example of how a concept or theory could be applied), Concept Maps (a diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts), and the Exit Slip (asking students to report on what they have learned through a guided or open-ended reflection at the end of a new lesson or topic). You can learn more about CATs and see more examples at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching website, as well as in Western Washington University’s Teaching Handbook.
- Having students turn in drafts of a research paper or select components of a longer-term project for feedback, building toward a final and complete submission at the end of the instructional unit or term
- Requiring students to provide peer feedback to each other on an assignment before it gets submitted to the instructor for a grade
Summative assessment & feedback
Summative assessment and feedback serves as a means to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit or term, to determine how closely the student has achieved the overall learning objectives of that instructional unit or course. Examples of summative assessment and feedback include:
- A midterm exam
- A multi-week project that students turn in at midterm or end of term
- A solo or group presentation about a topic related to the course
- A research paper
- A recital or performance
Delivery formats & platforms
Feedback can be offered online via text or other annotation (videos can also be annotated with feedback), via audio recording, or via video recording. You may find audio to be a quick and easy way to provide feedback to students in a way that’s very personal and that allows the student to be able to better decipher the intent of the feedback, whereas text-based feedback can sometimes be misinterpreted.
Canvas facilitates offering assessment and feedback in multiple formats. It has a Quiz feature that allows you to set up standardized assessments with question types that are auto-graded and that provide auto-feedback on, for example, multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions. It also accommodates submission and feedback for alternative assessments, via such features as the SpeedGrader and DocViewer.
Remote assessment and feedback can be delivered and tracked using a variety of Middlebury-supported platforms, including:
- Canvas quizzes, assignments, peer-to-peer feedback, and SpeedGrader
- Self-reflection or journaling using Google apps
- Blogging or website creation using Sites DOT or Middcreate
- Presentations or creative work captured in video using Zoom or Panopto
Language learning assignments and their Canvas versions
The table below shares some strategies that you can use to recreate typical language learning activities as assignment types using Canvas.
| Assignment Type | Canvas Version |
|---|---|
| Oral Presentation | Discussion Board in which each student posts a self-recorded video of their presentation |
| Essay | Assignment in which students upload a doc or link to a Google doc that the instructor can access and use to give feedback |
| Closed Grammar Exercises | Quiz that is auto-graded (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true and false, matching, etc) |
| Peer Feedback | Discussion Board in which peers are assigned to give feedback via the comments. Consider using the RISE rubric to structure peer feedback. |
| Group Presentation | Students record a Zoom conversation and upload it to a Discussion Board. Note: this works best when students are in the same or similar time zones. |
| Gallery-style Sharing of Work | Discussion Board in which each student posts work OR Canvas Page that is editable by students and teachers on which students paste a link to their work outside of Canvas |
| Live Class Discussion | Zoom link provided in Canvas that students can access to join a planned discussion lead by the teacher. Note: this works best when students are in the same or similar time zones. |
| Journal | Students create a Google doc and share the link with the teacher, who then creates a Canvas Page with a list of student names hyperlinked to individual docs. The teacher can assign journal entries by adding prompts as Assignments with due-dates if needed. |
Resources for delivering, tracking, and providing feedback on assessments
SpeedGrader and DocViewer in Canvas
- How do I use SpeedGrader?
- How do I add annotated comments in student submissions using DocViewer in SpeedGrader?
What Tools Are Available to Provide Annotated Feedback on Videos?
- GoReact (can be used as a Canvas assignment)
- Hypothesis (YouTube videos only; can be used as a Canvas assignment)
- VideoAnt
Download/Upload Assignments in Canvas
Peer Review in Canvas
- How do I use Peer Reviews in a Canvas Course – from Canvas Instructor Guide
- How do I view student comments on a Peer Review – from Canvas Instructor Guide
Rubrics & Checklists
- iDEA Design Book – a great resource for all sorts of course design ideas and tools
- iDEA Design Book Assessment page – a pdf with suggestions and links to other assessment resources
- RISE Rubric – a resource to help guide peer-to-peer feedback
- Middlebury rubrics for teaching writing (includes discipline-specific samples)
- Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (U of MN)
- Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning has some good overall info & examples
- The Buck Institute for Education offers project-based learning (PBL) assessment strategies applicable to digital storytelling
Quick Tips
- Communicate often & be present
- Review your assessments from the perspective of a student before publishing them
- Ask students for feedback and ideas
- Use a detailed rubric with assessment criteria
- Assess process + content + product (not just final product)
- Provide formative + summative feedback (revise & resubmit)
- Make use of peer review
- Incorporate self-reflection + self-assessment
- Consider using social annotation for peer reviews & self-assessment. Two tools to which Midd has free access:
- Hypothesis for annotation of web-based content & PDFs, plus YouTube videos
- GoReact for annotation of video content
