Feedback & Evaluations

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Midterm Feedback

  • At mid-term for your course, provide written feedback for each of your students in Moodle.
  • This feedback is intended to provide an overview of progress in the course and direction for the remainder of the term.

Final Narrative Evaluations

  • Final Narrative Evaluations end the term with a final note to each student in Moodle.
  • This feedback is intended to support continued growth as learners in future courses and beyond.
Guidance on Narrative Feedback

Midterm Feedback for Students

Mid-session check-in notes provide an opportunity to pull back from your regular interactions with students to give them a brief summary of where they are to date in your class. They serve as a pause that helps students reflect upon their learning and themselves as learners.

This feedback should provide:

  1. Concrete feedback that helps students understand what they are doing well so that they can build upon their strengths 
  2. Clear direction on the next few things that it will be most useful for them to focus on as they deepen their learning in your course. 

For each student in your course, please compose the feedback following the outline below. Feel free to personalize or create your own template for feedback but be sure to the elements listed. 

How to submit Midterm Feedback

  1. Go into your Moodle course
  2. For session 1 or 2 courses, go to Week 4; For session 3 courses, go to Week 8
  3. Select 📝 Mid-Semester Feedback for Students
  4. Select the blue button, “Grade”
  5. Begin giving feedback to each student
    1. Note: You can do written, audio or video feedback–whatever you think makes sense for you and your students.

This video (4:17 minutes) shows you how to input the feedback.

Feedback tips

  1. Where it makes sense, recycle feedback (from the student’s previously submitted work).
  2. Create a template of feedback that you use. This can be broken into a few versions such as a version for the student that is exceeding, the student that is struggling but showing progress, and the student that is struggling but not showing progress.
  3. You can use text, audio, or video to convey your feedback.
  4. Concise (but kind) is better than overly wordy.
  5. Include:
    • 1-3 strengths and, if appropriate, how the student can build on them
    • 1-3 opportunities for growth (include mention of absences if an issue here), 3. 1-2 questions, thoughts, ideas, resources to consider as the student pursues their project.
    • Checklist of outstanding work
Example 1:

Dear [Student’s name],
We’ve reached the midpoint of our Writing for Change course, so this is a great time for a pulse check to reflect on all the hard work you have already done and to consider the plan for successfully completing the remaining work. I really enjoyed getting to know more about you and your project during our one-on-one phone meeting and through your work in the course thus far. It is a pleasure having you as a student. Below, I have provided some feedback on the strengths you have demonstrated as well as some opportunities for growth and a suggestion for the road ahead.

● Strengths: You have a solid grasp of writing and are able to clearly communicate your ideas in your writing assignments and in your peer responses. The feedback you provided your classmate on the OpEd peer response was particularly thoughtful.
● Opportunities for Growth: To reiterate my OpEd feedback, I think it will be beneficial for you to review some more OpEds to familiarize yourself with more examples of this genre of writing to help with your revision of this assignment. I am concerned that you are missing assignments that will help you to research and support your ideas not only for the assignments in the course but for your project in general.
● Suggestion: Regarding your project, as I previously shared, I think it is a great idea, and I like the ways you are thinking about it. My only concern was the scope with regard to what you could feasibly accomplish without putting too much pressure on yourself given the natural process of writing as well as your subject matter. I encourage you to continue to explore the ideas we discussed during our phone conversation in addition to considering my feedback on your Mission, Goals, and Values statement and Op-Ed to further determine the more specific details of your project as you develop it into the beneficial resource that I know it will be when you complete it.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I look forward to our continued work together in this course.

Checklist of your outstanding work:
— Building your Resource Library
— Avoiding unintentional plagiarism
— Finding and evaluating sources

Example 2:

Dear [student’s name],

This note is to provide a midterm check-in for feedback in addition to that which is received on weekly assignments and reflected in your running grade to date as listed in the course shell 

Strengths: 
1. Developing critical thinking displayed in work and in engagement with peers.
2. Shows some evidence of integrated knowledge from course concepts with connections made to self and project. 
3. Posts inspiring responses. 

Opportunities for growth: 
4. Utilize support networks (including cohort, classmates, and Advisor) to deepen abilities for creative problem solving. 
5. Work to increase levels of accountability and communication within the course. 

Suggestions for project development: 
6. When building your personal learning network (PLN) in support of your project, challenge your thinking to look for those that are not just obvious advocates and supporters that can help, but also those that could pose barriers or may not seem likely allies as well. 
7. Look for opportunities to collaborate 

If there are any questions regarding the information in this check-in, please do not hesitate to reach out to me to schedule a phone or zoom consult. 

Checklist of outstanding work: 
Wk2 assignment surprises about change
Wk4 discussion questions 4.1 and 4.2 
Wk4 Problem Statement Assignment 
Wk 5 discussion questions 5.1 and 5.2 
Wk 5 Personal Learning Network Draft assignment 
Class check-ins: 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th (check-ins are forced (graded) communications) 

Example 3:

Dear [student name], 

You have done a great job of keeping up with all of the work for this class. Your write up of what you would like to change in your community was excellent. You did a great job of relating the change you would like to make to your own experiences and explaining the difference that even a small change could make. You showed very good knowledge of the subject matter. Well done! 

I would like to see a little more of your good thinking in the weekly write ups of our readings. Your comments have been thoughtful. and I would appreciate reading more of your reflections, as I’m sure would your classmates. I think you could look for opportunities to link the readings to change you would like to see in your community or society, or to your projects. 

Final Narrative Evaluations

Narrative Evaluations are a brief final note to each student with individualized feedback that will help them continue to develop as learners and to achieve their goals.

Research on learning transfer (Kaiser, Kaminski, Foley), stereotype threat (Steele), and growth mindsets (Mueller and Dweck) indicates that your note will be most effective if you answer questions like the following:

  1. How has the student’s effort paid off this term? 
  2. Given what the student has accomplished, what new goals might they set for themselves? 
  3. How can the student use what they have learned/accomplished in your class to further their project, to be successful in other classes, and/or in their personal or professional life?
  4. What are one or two specific elements of the Big 10 that the student did well? 

Hint: A good way to scaffold student’s ability to self assess and so grow as self-directing learners is to ask them to answer these questions about themselves. Then, your narrative is a response to their self-assessment.

How to Submit Narrative Evaluations

Please utilize the following instructions for sharing evaluations with CU and students.

  1. Go into your Moodle course
  2. Go to final week in your course
  3. Select 📝 End of Semester Feedback for Students
  4. Select the blue button, “Grade”
  5. Begin giving feedback to each student
    1. Note: You can do written, audio or video feedback–whatever you think makes sense for you and your students.

This is an ungraded assignment within Moodle. This means the feedback will show up in students Grades (as well as be emailed to them).  This short video (4:17 minutes) walks you through how to do this as well.  

Guidance on Narrative Feedback