Purpose & Forms of Feedback

While a grade is a form of feedback, and feedback may be used to justify a grade, feedback and grading can serve different purposes in the arc of a course.

In practice/process assignments, the primary purpose of feedback is to help students revise their project or improve in the next assignment for the course. Grading at this stage may be focused more on effort and may be weighted less than other assignments in the course.

In demonstration activities, feedback becomes more intertwined with grading. At that stage the instructor is assessing whether or not the student has demonstrated success as it relates to course content and communication outcomes, and the grading stakes are higher.

In a C-I course practice/process activities receive formative feedback, and summative feedback occurs in response to demonstration assignments.

Forms

Feedback may be given in the classroom, during labs and SI sessions, during office hours, on Moodle or some other online platform, or on the work itself.

Feedback may be given to individual students, groups of students, or the entire class.

Feedback can be documented or impromptu.

Feedback can be spoken (face-to-face or recorded) or written.

Timing

In some C-I courses, the instructor structures feedback into short, discrete units, while in other courses feedback activities may span the semester. Some C-I teachers design their course so that a feedback sequence is repeated multiple times, while others might engage a single cycle. Each cycle typically includes some combination of formative (low-stakes) and summative (high-stakes) feedback. What all C-I courses have in common—regardless of course level or discipline—is that they are designed with intentionality, from start to finish, to achieve the dual outcomes of deepening students’ content learning and developing their communication skills.