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We know that formative assessments provide valuable information about how students are progressing in a class. It can help reinforce learning by guiding students in determining where to focus their energies when studying. Formative assessments also identify gaps in students’ progress toward achieving learning goals and helps instructors make decisions about how to best use class time when developing class activities. Yet providing feedback can be a time-consuming task and is often perceived by students as a justification for their grade rather than an opportunity to improve. 

To get better results from your feedback efforts, Bohnacker-Bruce (2011)¹ suggests that effective formative feedback should:

• Use descriptive, not evaluative language
• Be specific about how to improve
• Focus on performance 
• Given in time to make improvements on future assessments
• Be legible 
• Try to balance positive and negative aspects

Also, don’t forget to explain to students how feedback can help them and how you expect them to use the feedback you provide. You may even consider requiring students to explain how they  incorporated your feedback into their work.

While providing feedback can be time consuming, technology can be a useful, productive tool to employ. Nicol (2009)² found that the “appropriate use of learning technologies can encourage better engagement with feedback” (p. 337). Some ideas include recording audio or video feedback for common misconceptions for all students and using apps that let students quiz themselves and receive automatic feedback. Another option is using Plickers, November’s Tech of the Month, for quickly assessing students’ progress.  

¹Bohnacker-Bruce, S. (2011). What is effective feedback: The student perspective. Capture 3, 7-14.

²Nicol, D. (2009). Assessment for learner self-regulation: Enhancing achievement in the first year using learning technologies. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 34, no. 3: 335–52.