How to Put Into Practice
Review your assessment from the student’s perspective to make expectations transparent. This clarity should extend from instructions for what to do in an assignment (see 6.4 Guide to Writing Clear Instructions) to clear expectations for what successful work looks like. Here are some strategies for helping students receive and apply these critical messages to their learning.
Use text, audio, or video to introduce an assignment
Remind students how the assignment is connected to learning outcomes. Point to the real-world relevance of skills and knowledge they will develop.
Provide relevant examples and resources
Include models and step-by-step examples of problems, walk-throughs, extra resources to support, and give clear guidance on course activities and where to go for help when needed.
Use rubrics to clarify expectations before students submit their work
While we may associate rubrics with grading a finished product, rubrics can also help students understand and apply expectations to their work-in-progress. Adding a rubric also helps instructors grade more efficiently. Instructors can use generative AI as a developmental partner to draft rubrics or co-create criteria with students.
- This resource by DePaul University outlines how to use rubrics to communicate clear expectations to students DePaul also offers resources for designing different types of rubrics including the pros and cons of various rubric formats, how to create rubrics, and examples of effective rubrics.
- One caveat is that we shouldn’t expect rubrics to answer every question or solve all the challenges we face in communicating our expectations to our students. The messages in a rubric about where students should focus their efforts should be reinforced through multiple channels, including course activities, learning outcomes, and interactions, to help students fully understand and act on them.
- See OneHE member resource Rubrics: What They Are and How to Use Them (Access: This resource is available with OneHE membership. A 10-day free trial is available for new members.)
Use peer review to help students apply expectations to their work
Peer reviews are a particularly powerful part of the learning process, because they constitute an assessment (i.e., they provide information about what students know and can do in order to improve subsequent learning), a learning activity, and an opportunity for reflection on the learning process. Learn more with Peer Review (University of Pittsburgh) and Peer Review in the Classroom: How to Frame Your Feedback (OneHE membership is required to review. A 10-day free trial is available for new members.)
Share instructions with students on how to view feedback in your LMS
- If you set up a peer review assignment in your LMS, share clear instructions so students understand how to use it.
- If you annotate student work in a built-in grading tool within your learning management system, provide guidance to help students find and use your annotations.
Providing feedback
Feedback offers an essential moment of connection between educators and learners – and the tone of that feedback can make all the difference in inspiring growth and change. Effective feedback works best when it is frequent, focused, and flows in multiple directions — encourage students to initiate and frame their own feedback requests through brief reflective memos, which build metacognitive skills while making your responses more targeted.
Prioritize feedback in tiers by tackling the most foundational concepts first, and cultivate an entire ecosystem of feedback opportunities — from peer review and office hours to informal check-ins — so that timely, meaningful feedback doesn’t rest solely on the instructor and remains manageable for everyone involved. Consider appreciative inquiry-based feedback (AI-based feedback). It is a strengths-based approach to feedback that:
- inspires improvement from a positive perspective
- starts with strengths/what is working well
- includes inquiry (questions) about what is next
- leads to deeper meaning-making, self-reflection, and critical thinking.
For example: instead of saying “Your presentation was unclear and lacked enough evidence to support your argument”, you could try the AI-based feedback by saying:? “You explained your main idea with confidence, which helped engage the audience. As you prepare your next presentation, what evidence or examples could you add to make your argument even stronger and more convincing?”
Learn more with OneHE member content (Access: These resources are available with OneHE membership. A 10-day free trial is available for new members):
- The Art Of Giving Feedback – this infographic presents principles and good practices of giving feedback to students that can be embedded in online learning.
- 3 Ways To Provide Effective Feedback To Students – this video interview shares tips about using effective feedback strategies to empower learners and increase their engagement
- Supporting Students’ Use Of Feedback – this course explores the importance of supporting students’ use of feedback and introduces practical activities that enhance students’ feedback literacy.
- Peer Review in the Classroom: How to Frame Your Feedback – this activity explains how to effectively use peer review in class to increase collaboration and self-reflection among students.
- Appreciative Inquiry (AI)-Based Feedback – this activity is useful to encourage a strengths-based approach to comments and feedback.
- Engaging Students Through Screen-Capture Video Feedback – this course explores the use of screen-capture video feedback and how it can be used to enhance students’ understanding of, and engagement with, feedback.
- 3 Quick Feedback Strategies – this video shares three quick steps for making feedback to students more efficient.