Some Ideas for Providing Early Feedback to First Year Students

Center for Instructional and Professional Development

Tony Ciccone, Director

As an important part of the campus Access to Success initiative, instructors have been asked to provide feedback on performance to first year students in the first four weeks of their courses. In many cases, you will have some data on which to base your judgment, e.g., attendance, participation (especially in smaller classes), work done outside of class, quiz results. In other cases, most notably in large lectures, these data may be limited to attendance reports and very subjective, anecdotal information, e.g., student conversation after class.

The Center for Instructional and Professional Development (CIPD) has created two documents to help you with this crucial retention strategy of providing timely feedback to first year students.

Thirteen Strategies to Collect and Provide Useful Feedback to Students, designed by Connie Schroeder and available at the CIPD web site, http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIPD/ provides a wide range of strategies that can be used to gather information about student performance. In general, the strategies will enable the instructor to understand how well the class, as a whole, is meeting his/her learning expectations and, in some cases, provide insights that can and should be shared with individual students, on an “early warning report” or in more informal ways. The strategies also enable each student to get a better idea of his/her own progress as they often ask students to compare their current understanding of a concept, or their ability to apply knowledge, to a standard. In short, the strategies also encourage student self-assessment, a critical part of any feedback system.

The suggestions in this document, Some Ideas for Providing Early Feedback to First Year Students, also available on our website, emphasize gathering information about, and providing useful feedback on, student performance for individuals and within the first four weeks . They are specifically designed to help you make informed decisions when judging student early performance as you fill out and submit the early feedback form.

Remember: A good feedback system provides manageable, timely, and useful information to student and instructor alike. It should enable each to understand how well expectations are being met and, most importantly, help each make the necessary changes to improve performance.

Further information and examples of strategies can be found in Thirteen Strategies and at the UWM E-Reserve. Select department, “UWM-Center for Instructional and Professional Development,” and follow the e-reserve links to the alphabetical listing and select Thirteen Strategies.

Strategy One: Involve teaching assistants

In large lecture classes with discussions or labs, involve the teaching assistants in both the design and implementation of strategies to gather data about individual student learning. For example, do an “exit pass” activity at the end of the lecture, review the results with the TA's, then have the TA start the discussion section with the unclear concepts. Reverse the process by having the TA use the “exit pass” at the end of the discussion section; you start the lecture with the unclear concepts. Track the work from students who seem to be having difficulty.

Strategy Two: Take every opportunity 

Return graded or ungraded work with additional comments about the student's performance, positive or negative. For example, “Good job on this quiz. I'd like to hear more of your ideas in class discussion.” Or “I think this concept is not yet clear to you. Please see me or your TA.” Keep track of your comments for the early warning report.

Strategy Three: Vary your feedback  

Use a combination of graded and ungraded assignments to provide feedback. Ungraded assignments are often simply counted or checked off and provide evidence that a student is keeping up with the work. For example, use the “one-sentence summary” strategy to gather immediate, easily managed information about student understanding.

Strategy Four: Find a baseline

Consider using some form of pre-test of essential concepts within the first week. Do not count as part of the student's grade, but note students whose performance signals upcoming difficulty. Compare with later results on class work . (See “Knowledge Probe”)

Strategy Five: Gather meaningful information

Select feedback strategies that relate directly to the performance of course learning goals. For example, if you are interested in developing the ability to identify and analyze information, consider using the “defining features matrix.” If you are interested in students' ability to apply knowledge, consider using “application cards.”

Strategy Six: Exploit D2L

If you have a course D2L site, use the quiz feature to help you manage grading. Consider also monitoring student use of the site. The Discussion feature will also provide insight into how individual students are handling course concepts.

Strategy Seven: Don't rely solely on grades

Wherever possible, look for evidence of the process of student thinking as well as the results, i.e., answers to questions. As part of a graded quiz, for example, select one crucial question and ask students to “show their thinking.” (See “Misconceptions/Pre-conception Test”)

Strategy Eight: Design assignments that require revision or rethinking

Consider using a “big picture” question that you return to after each new concept or module. For example, “Now that we've read two points of view on x, what can we say about the question of y? ” Where writing is required, use a write/comment/rewrite strategy where you ask students to explain how they used your comments.

Strategy Nine: Look carefully for signs of disengagement

In addition to unsatisfactory work on graded assignments, look for other indicators: late or sloppy work, absence, inattentiveness.

Strategy Ten: Encourage self-assessment

Take every opportunity to encourage students to communicate to you their own assessment of their learning. For example, as part of out of class work or quizzes, ask students to write brief comments about their level of confidence in their knowledge, or on the difficulties they faced in doing the work.

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