EOTP - Providing Useful Feedback
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Rationale
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Ensure your feedback is effective
2. Help students use feedback to improve
3. Employ technologies to increase efficiency in providing feedback
SKELETAL OUTLINE
Course Demonstration
Ensuring Your Feedback is Effective
Helping Students Use Feedback to Improve
Employing Technology to Increase Efficiency in Providing Feedback
Expert Insights
Video
José Bowen, a scholar in online teaching and learning, provides ideas for scaffolding high quality and timely feedback that ensures students use feedback to improve their work.
Common Challenges & Misconceptions
Read each challenge or misconception and give a thumbs up if it is a challenge or misconception you have encountered or thumbs down if it’s not.
OBSERVE & ANALYZE
Watch
IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCES
Online Instructional Practices
F2F Instructional Practices
Additional Resources
This section includes resources to support your implementation of the practices presented in the module.
Download the online instructional practice implementation resources for this module.
Examine how implicit bias affects your understanding, actions, and decisions
Become aware of your implicit biases
In an online environment, there are fewer physical cues about students’ backgrounds and identities than in a face-to-face setting. However, research suggests that implicit or unconscious biases can still be triggered simply by seeing a name and can impact how students are evaluated and judged.
Consider how your implicit biases may impact students
Implicit or unconscious biases often lead to microaggressions, which are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults (whether intentional or unintentional) that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based upon their marginalized group membership (Sue, 2010).
Download a resource you can use to take steps to mitigate the impact of implicit bias on your students.
Mitigate the impact of implicit bias in assessment and feedback practices
The grading process can be impacted by implicit bias through your knowledge of students’ previous scores, work ethic, and race or ethnicity (Malouff, 2008; Malouff et al., 2013). Fortunately, there are grading practices, such as anonymous grading, that can be used to reduce the impact of implicit bias on student grades.
Use student feedback to reflect on your role as an inclusive educator
The goal of asking for student feedback is to gauge student perceptions of the impact of your use of inclusive practices. Seeking feedback early in your course can allow you to make adjustments for your current group of students.
Download a resource you can use to gain feedback on your role as an inclusive educator.
Create an inclusive online course and learning environment
Create an inclusive syllabus
Creating an inclusive classroom or online environment means making intentional and ongoing efforts to ensure that all students feel they belong and can thrive in the learning environment. One step you can take right at the beginning of your course is to set the tone for diversity and inclusion in your syllabus.
Download a resource to help you create an inclusive syllabus.
Download a resource on helping students overcome imposter syndrome.
Ensure your curriculum incorporates diverse perspectives and experiences
Critically examining your course from multiple viewpoints to ensure it includes materials that accurately represent various perspectives can help your students feel more motivated, with a greater sense of belonging.
Hold both individual and group virtual office hours
Since many online courses are asynchronous and can sometimes be isolating, virtual office hours are a good way to give students an opportunity to connect with you and their peers to create a supportive learning environment (Nilson & Goodson, 2018).
Download a resource on holding both individual and group office hours.
Ensure your course examples reflect a diverse society
Meaningful examples that are relevant to your students and reflect a diverse society can contribute to students’ sense of belonging and increase their motivation.
Download a resource to help ensure your examples reflect a diverse society.
Share resources that demonstrate attentiveness to students’ diverse needs
Including information in your syllabus or course shell that supports students from different identity groups communicates to them that you are aware and that you care.
Download a resource that will help you develop resources that support all students.
Foster respect for diverse student identities
Diverse campuses give college students the opportunity to learn from peers with different perspectives shaped by a variety of life experiences. Provide opportunities for students to engage with people of different backgrounds and help them develop an appreciation for people different from themselves.
Download a resource that will help you foster respect for diverse students.
Set expectations and manage for respectful dialogue
Working with your students to set clear expectations for how they should interact with each other early in the course helps to create a productive learning environment. Introduce a basic set of community norms for students and facilitate a discussion about them. Use them to address any offensive comments or other incidents that disrupt the learning environment.
Explicitly invite diverse perspectives and viewpoints
Encouraging students to share their diverse viewpoints enriches discussions, encourages creative problem solving, and helps students develop critical thinking skills. Students also learn to respectfully listen and respond to various viewpoints, a key career-ready skill.
Download a resource that will help encourage your students to share diverse viewpoints.
Understand and mitigate the impact of stereotype threat and microaggressions
Understand the impact of stereotype threat and implement practices to reduce it
Stereotype threat is defined as a phenomenon in which a person’s concern about confirming a negative stereotype of one or more of the groups with which they personally identify can lead that person to underperform (Spencer, 2016).
Recognize, avoid, and mitigate the impact of microaggressions
Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership (Sue, 2010). Microaggressions can have a negative impact on students. However, there are steps we can take to mitigate their impact.
Download a resource that will help you understand and mitigate the impact of microaggressions.
Teach students to recognize and address microaggressions
It is important that as instructors we do not ignore microaggressions as they happen, which can further marginalize students from underrepresented groups. In doing so, we can also miss an opportunity to promote understanding of the impact of microaggressions (Sue et al., 2009).
Download a resource that will help you teach students to recognize and address microaggressions.
Use language to validate student identities
As instructors, the language we use can work toward or against building an inclusive learning environment. For example, research has shown that using “he” to indicate “he or she” in professional settings affects women’s sense of belonging and lowers motivation (Sczensy, Formanowicz & Moser, 2016).
Download a resource that will help you use language to validate student identities.
This section includes additional resources to support your implementation of these and similar practices in a face-to-face course.
Implementation Resources
Download or print the following resources to practice our techniques for embracing diversity in your classroom:
- Download this handout of tips for establishing ground rules for productive discourse and examples of ground rules.
- Part of establishing ground rules is defining for students what good participation looks like and how students can earn high participation grades (S. D. Brookfield, personal communication, January 25, 2016). Review Brookfield’s class participation grading handout for specific examples of good participation.
- Review this table of microaggressions to learn about the themes of common microaggressions, along with examples and the messages they could convey.
- Learn more about how to reduce stereotype threat
- Download this handout of suggestions for effectively managing “hot moments” in the classroom.
- Read about and take Implicit Association Tests to gain key insight into implicit attitudes that you may be unaware of.
- Download these suggestions for ensuring your syllabus sets the tone for diversity and inclusion.
Below are additional resources to further explore the module topics.
Video Resource
Resources for Further Reading
- Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Consult a comprehensive list of references for this module..
Community Connections
- Amer F. Ahmed and Shayla Harndon-Edmunds: “Classroom Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy”
- Amer F. Ahmed: “Diversity and Inclusion: How Does Higher Ed Rate?”
- Jerome Williams: “Rutgers-Newark Administrator Talks Campus Diversity”
- José Bowen: “Teaching Naked Techniques”
- Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: “Interactivity and Inclusivity Can Help Close the Achievement Gap”
- Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: “Virtual Office Hours with Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: Including Diversity Statements on the Syllabus”
- Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: “Virtual Office Hours with Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: What should instructors be doing to set the tone of an inclusive environment for the semester on the first day of class?”Links to an external site.
- Michael Wesch: “Michael Wesch: What Inspired Me to Redesign My Syllabus”
- Stephen Brookfield: “The Skillful Teacher”
- Terri Jett: “Insights: The Complexity of the Inclusive Classroom Dynamic”
References
INSTRUCTOR CREDENTIALS
Dana Autry, PhD, MCHES
Director of Adjunct Faculty Engagement
Academic Affairs Department
Park University
Tracy Burt, EdM, Instructor
Child Development and Family Studies Department
City College of San Francisco
Darvelle Hutchins, MBA, MA
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Communication
University of Missouri
Kevin Kelly, EdD
Lecturer, Department of Equity, Leadership Studies, & Instructional Technologies
San Francisco State University
Kate Kelley, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Religious Studies
University of Missouri
EXPERT
José Antonio Bowen, PhD
Former President, Goucher College
Former Dean, Miami University and Southern Methodist University
Author, Teaching Naked
Santiba D. Campbell, PhD
Associate Professor, Psychology
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Bennett College
Marlo Goldstein Hode, PhD
Senior Manager, Strategic Diversity Initiatives
University of Missouri—Saint Louis
Jennifer Imazeki, PhD
Associate Chief Diversity Officer for Faculty and Staff
Professor of Economics
San Diego State University
Sharoni Denise Little, PhD, EdD
Vice Dean/Senior Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
Professor, Business Communication
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
CEO, The Strategist Company, LLC
Suzanne Elise Walsh, JD
President
Bennett College
Lilisa J. Williams, MBA
Director of Faculty and Staff Development
Hudson County Community College
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Cullen, M. (2008)
35 dumb things well-intended people say: Surprising things we say that widen the diversity gap. Morgan James.
Elsesser, K. (2020, July 8)
How to use gender-neutral language, and why it’s important to try. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/07/08/how-to-use-gender-neutral-language-and-why-its-important-to-try/#1b50f95f26ba
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Kerby, S. (2012, October 9)
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Johns, M., & Schmader, T. (2004, January 29–31)
Knowing is half the battle [Paper presentation]. Society for Personality and Social Psychology Fifth Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, United States.
Malouff, J. M., Emmerton, A. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2013)
The risk of a halo bias as a reason to keep students anonymous during grading. Teaching of Psychology, 40(3): 233–237.
Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012)
Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), 16474–16479.
Nilson, L. B., & Goodson, L. A. (2018)
Online teaching at its best: Merging instructional design with teaching and learning research. Jossey-Bass.
Sczesny, S., Formanowicz, M., & Moser, F. (2016)
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Reeves, A. N. (2015)
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Riley, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2012)
Self-fulfilling prophecy: How teachers’ attributions, expectations, and stereotypes influence the learning opportunities afforded Aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Education, 35(2), 303–333.
Spencer, S. J., Logel, C., & Davies, P. G. (2016)
Stereotype threat. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 415–437.
Steele, C. M. (1997)
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Sue, D. W. (2010)
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Tatum, B. D. (2011)
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Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011)
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Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 804–824.
