How to Provide Peer Feedback

I have noticed that online teaching and learning proponents always stress the important of feedback to students. Many of them provide many opportunities for providing feedback from the technology perspective. For example, discussion formums are a good place to provide feedback. None of those provide guidelines for giving and receiving feedback. This short document provides some guidelines you can use in your peer feedback of the Course Projects.

These ideas were taken (sometimes literally) from the authors in the list at the bottom of this page.

Everyone has the capacity for giving useful feedback. Some people use it to more effect than others. The skills of giving and receiving feedback can be developed if attention is given to some of the attributes of worthwhile feedback and how it can be given so that its contribution to learning can be enhanced. (Trigwell, Martin, Benjamin and Prosser as extracted from Boud).

Good and Bad Feedback
We all know what is is like to be on the receiving end of back feedback: we feel "got at", "attacked", "put down", "damned", and generally invalidated as a person.

Some characteristics of bad feedback are

• that is directed globally at the person
• it is unhelpful, that is, it does not suggest what otherwise might be
• it is ill-judged
• it comes from the needs of the critic rather than the needs of the person receiving it
• it can provide a weight of destructive comment from which it is difficult for a person to surface
• is is dehumanizing

Useful feedback

• affirms the worth of the person
• gives support while offering reactions to the object of attention

Thus, the person providing the feedback shows that he or she values the person who is receiving it and that the provider is sensitive to their needs and goals. This does not mean that only praise should be given, but that any critical matters should be raised in an overall supportive context in which the parties can trust one another.

Some characteristics of good feedback are

• it is realistic - Don't make suggestions about matters the person cannot control
• is it specific - The person should be given sufficient information to pinpoint the areas to which you are referring and have a clear idea of what is being said about those specific areas
• is sensitive to the goals of the person - Just because the other person's contributions have not met your goals doesn't necessarily imply that something is wrong. The person produced the work for a specific purpose and you s hould be aware of that purpose and give your views accordingly.
• is timely - It is not use offering feedback after the person receiving it has put the work aside and moved on to other things.
• is descriptive - Don't say what you think the person should feel.
• is consciously non-judgemental - Offer your personal view, do not act as an authority.
• is direct - Don't wrap up what you are saying in circumlocution, fancy words or abstract language.

A Feedback Checklist

1. In what ways does this project deserve praise?

• Is the project particularly interesting? If so, why?
• Is the course well organized? If so, explain.
• Is the orientation effective? If so, why?
• Is there a course element that stands out from the rest? If so, what is it?
• Does the course contain something unique that would be valuable to other instructors? If so, what is it?
• Other
• Other
• Other

2. What questions do you have about this course?

• Why did you do this or not do that?
• Can you describe what the students should do here?
• This sentence is confusing. Can you explain it more clearly?
• Where are the assessments for this module?
• How will students find (some part) of the course?

After You Provide Feedback: Some Questions To Ask Yourself

Did I ...

• try to facilitate my colleagye's own discoveries wherever possible?
• regard the review as a time to be helpful to my colleague, not to display my insights and expertise?
• think through how I would feel receiving these comments?
• try to be as specific as possible, referring my colleague to explicit events when possible?
• label my feedback as subjective when it was subjective?
• demonstrate support for my colleague?
• help my colleague turn negative feedback into constructive challenges?

References

Fostering Reflection and Providing Feedback by Jane Westberg and Hilliard Jason. Springer Publishing Company.

Giving and Receiving Feedback. Cathy Sherpa

http://www.clt.uts.edu.au/Scholarship/Protocol.for.Feedback.htm