It’s that time of year again, the weather is getting warmer, the flowers and blooming and… you’re inside grading. Ah, yes, the end of the semester, a time of great excitement but also of great stress because there’s just SO MUCH GRADING. (You can do it, just hang in there!)
While this term is ending in a different way than those in past years, giving students good feedback on their assignments or tests is pretty similar whether you’re doing it digitally or in person.
To help you through this process, we’ve collected some resources, including both technical guides for utilizing the feedback tools in Blackboard as well as some articles highlighting best practices for giving feedback in the online environment. If we can help make it even a little easier on you, let us know!
Feedback in Blackboard
To get a good overview of how you give feedback to students in Blackboard, one of the best places to start is through our webinar on Feedback. It covers all the basics and can help you get up and running.
We also have a number of Knowledge Base articles on grading and feedback-related topics. Here are a few that may prove useful:
- Maximize Your Grading View with Full-Screen Mode: Make grading a little easier on the eyes!
- Providing Feedback on Short Answer Questions: Learn where to find the feedback tools for these kinds of assessments.
- Grade Tests: This is a collection of every Knowledge Base post you could need to grade a test.
- Grading Assignments and Providing Feedback: This post includes information about a range of grading topics, essentially covering everything you’d need to know to grade students assignments.
- Showing Test Results and Feedback to Students: Feedback is only useful if students see it and use it. This post explains how.
- Best Practices for Online Group Projects and Discussions: If you’re using group projects or discussions in your course, you can learn how to set them up for success and provide helpful guidance and feedback from this post.
- Grade Assignments and Provide Feedback: If we missed something, you’ll find it on the Blackboard Help site.
Feedback Fundamentals
We’ve covered the technical aspects of feedback, so here are some pointers on giving feedback that address the nature of the feedback itself, from what makes effective feedback to how to ensure giving feedback doesn’t overwhelm you.
- The New Online Instructor’s Guide to Feedback Fundamentals: Part I
- The New Online Instructor’s Guide to Feedback Fundamentals: Part II
- The New Online Instructor’s Guide to Feedback Fundamentals: Part III
- The Productive Professor: The Efficiency Hacks You Need for Grading
More Resources
Here are a few more resources you might find helpful as you’re grading papers and student assignments.
- Effective Feedback for Deeper Learning
- Create Effective Feedback with Educational Technology
- Teaching Students to Give Peer Feedback
- Six Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students
We hope we’ve covered most of the feedback essentials, but if you have additional resources to add or want another topic covered, let us know! We’re happy to provide whatever support we can and share any ideas faculty have that may help others.
