Yacapaca

I am sure you have already noticed the “write a feedback statement” pages that we salt through quizzes now. We ask students to write feedback statements and then vote for the best ones. Until now, you have only been able to see the few statements that I have published here in the blog. Now, you get a complete log.

Access the log via More -> Feedback statement log

It is really interesting to see what students write. Some write lovely, insightful feedback, whilst others really do not cope with the task. For them, we have recently added a ‘skip’ button to make it clear that the task is voluntary.

When reading your students’ feedback statements, please bear in mind the rules we give them:

1. Explain for someone who chose this why it is wrong.
2. Don’t give the game away by telling them the right answer.
3. Help them work it out for themselves.

The one they struggle most with is (2). Education culture seems to have gone backwards when it comes to learning to think for yourself and the students’ own tendency to just blurt out the ‘right’ answer reflects this.

We are still actively developing the formative feedback system. I am thrilled with the quality of some of the feedback that is being written. I am less happy with the voting system, and in fact we are already in the process of revising it.

What I have learned through doing this project is that for the students, it’s the process that makes the difference, not the content. The act of writing and evaluating each others’ feedback is both formative and empowering. This is what makes it so much more powerful than even well-written feedback from the quiz author.