The Role of Feedback in Online Learning: Best Practices for Instructors

Imagine diligently working for a long period only to realise that the project was headed in the wrong direction and all your efforts go into vain. Let’s consider the possibility of someone providing you with timely feedback. By this, you realise your potential mistakes and your project goes in the right direction with desirable results. Isn’t this the best possible situation? 

This is the exact role of feedback in an online learning system. In a traditional classroom setting, you have limited with the peers and the guides. The face-to-face interactions are limited. However, in online learning, you have 24/7 access to the online portal for doubt clearing and interaction. Online degrees do provide accessibility and flexibility for students. But it remains challenging to create a more interactive and engaging learning environment.

Feedback becomes the lifeblood of digital learning systems because it transforms online courses into dynamic, empowering, and interactive learning journeys for students.

Feedback Mechanism: The Secret Sauce to Growth and Improvement

Wonders why feedback is vital, especially in an online classroom environment? The simplest answer would be to increase the interactivity between the guide and the learners.

Unlike a traditional classroom setting, the students and the teaching faculty do not get the chance to meet each other in person. So, a feedback system functions as a cornerstone for increasing the interactivity between the two. It harbours a positive learning environment simultaneously. The feedback should be timely, effective, and positive. It helps students correct their mistakes, understand the pace of the course, make relative progress, and maintain the right momentum. It has to be provided in the right manner so that the learner does not get demotivated. It makes the whole process of learning more interesting and prominent.

Related: How Online Learning Courses Facilitate Enhanced Learning Experience 

Best Practices for Instructors: Unleashing the True Power of Feedback Prism

Here are a few ways an instructor can deliver feedback to bring the best possible learning outcome for the students:

• Tailored Feedback: Getting Personal is Good, Especially in Online Learning: Online learning settings anyway gives fewer chances for direct interactions. So, whenever an instructor gives feedback to the students, it should be tailored according to the individual needs, focusing on their merits and weaknesses. You should guide an individual in the right direction, help them grow, and realise their true potential.

• Timely, Constructive, and Positive: Remember the Golden ‘TCP’ Rule : If feedback is not provided on a frequent basis, eventually it will have an impact on a learner’s overall performance. Feedback has to be timely so the students can learn when the concepts are still fresh and can rectify their mistakes. You also have to give constructive and positive feedback rather than harsh words. So that they can have a more encouraging viewpoint and help develop their core strength throughout the course.

• Diversity is the Key: Use Multiple Feedback Methods: Online learning is no longer confined to the old traditional methods of learning. So why do the feedback methods have to stick to the old ways? The advantage of enrolling in online courses is that even for the feedback mechanism, different video or audio sources can be used. Making feedback more concise, clear, and personal. You can also encourage collaborative or peer feedback through discussions, which can help diversify and widen the perspectives of the learners.

• Follow up: Turning Insightful Suggestions to Actions that Deliver Results: The key aspect of communication is that feedback has to be a two-sided conversation, not just a one-time event. You should listen to students’ ideas and encourage them to follow up with their suggestions. Be ready to offer support anytime they need it. You can prepare a short guide to commonly asked questions. This short guide would help reinforce the online interactive learning environment.

Related: Top 4 Online Learning Apps You Need to Know

The Impact of Feedback: Unleashing the Ripple Effect

Continuous feedback comes naturally in a classroom setting. However, it has to be reinforced in an online learning environment. You will have to make efforts to make it more effective in terms of growth and increasing student engagement.

What impact can effective feedback bring to an online learning system? Well, the list of benefits is long. 

• Peer assessment encourages interactive and collaborative learning communities.

• Help develop confidence in students and overall personality development. 

• Feedback brings improvement, which increases the calibre of learning.

• It widens the perspective and opens a discussion forum for more research. 

• It increases consistency, helps acknowledge and tackle challenges, and provides more depth in learning.

Closing Up

Feedback is the backbone of online learning, as students cannot have daily physical interactions. Open and constructive feedback not only guides the learners to correct mistakes but also creates a supportive and collaborative learning environment. It enhances the whole learning process and helps the learners realise their true potential in a digital learning environment. When the effectiveness of online learning is being questioned, a strong feedback mechanism can save the integrity. Therefore, if you are an instructor, it is your duty to create an effective feedback system.