Providing timely and constructive feedback to your online students can greatly improve their motivation and learning experiences. There are many types of feedback that you might find useful in the online environment.

Not all feedback needs to come from the instructor. Careful and considered feedback from online peers can be very beneficial. Self-reflective journals can also be used so that learners can provide self assessment and feedback.

• Provide timely contributions and feedback to discussion forums.
  
  
• Encourage students to provide feedback to their peers, whether this be comments in discussion boards or evaluations of projects (you may need to asign marks to this activity to get satisfactory participation).
  
  
• Provide specific feedback. Comments such as "nice job" or "interesting response" do not provide anyone with useful information (except, perhaps, lack of interest or commitment).
  
  
• Challenge opinions in a respectful and considerate way so that students know their contribution is valued and appreciated.
  
  
• Negative comments and feedback should be given privately (e.g., by email) not posted to a discussion forum.
  
  
• Encourage learners to complete formative unit/topic evaluations thoughout the course. This provides learnes with the opportunity to provide suggestions for improvement and a forum to express concerns and raise course-related issues.

If you do collect this type of information, make sure that you acknowledge the feedback and how, or if, you will implement any changes as a result. Don't collect this type of information if you have no intention of using it!

For a look at some strategies for providing meaningful feedback check out our "Tips and Strategies: Feedback" page.

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