Am Sagarwala
Associate Dean, Interaction Design @ Humber College. Proprietor @ Artform.ca
Leveraging the Feedback Loop
Ahmed (Am) Sagarwala
Associate Dean, Interaction Design
The Hawaiian star compass
Design: Nainoa Thompson.
Feedback is information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way.
– Ramaprasad (1984)
- Meets learners where they are
- Can be incorporated effectively
- Feeds up, back, and forward
- Works at four areas (task, process, self-regulation, self)
- Should not be burdensome
An Ideal Process
They waited 3-weeks for
feedback on their submission.
– Concerned Caregiver
I’m already behind on grading. Students just started submitting their next assignment...
– Flailing Faculty Member
I handed in my second assignment last week, but I found out today that I failed the first one.
– Stumped Student
I’m never going to need to do that again, I never even looked at the feedback.
– Languishing Learner
Roll call
How do you provide feedback to students in your classes?
Feedback detailed & frequent
Student's interpretation of feedback
Where do you stand?
1
Stimulus
3
Reinforcement
2
Response
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
Reframing With Three
1
2
3
Where are they now?
How are they currently?
Where to next?
Consider this dynamic:
Photo: Toa Heftiba
Manage Up
- Student submission assignment + self-assessment
- Faculty reviews in-class or async
- Meet with student feedback
- Student captures the critique in bullet-form
- Student reflection how to improve for next time
- Submit notes reference for next round
Framework
10 Years Ago...
A series of small experiments.
140 Students
Student receive a topic to write a post about every week.
12
Blog Posts
Post is reviewed based on a rubric regarding five criteria (use of visuals, writing quality, writing style, formatting, submission standard.
1,680
Assessed
A few sentences about where to improve, some of which was canned based on common issues and successes.
500+
Feedback
Late? Missed? Left-field submissions?
- 4% immediate improvement
- Quality work by W3 (was W6)
- 10% higher final grades
Outcomes
- Instead of 12, complete 8
- Propose a post
- Two lowest are dropped
- Peer-review two posts
Other Initiatives
Choose a course you lead or teach:
Target one assignment to incorporate this feedback framework. Remember to emulate an employee-manager exchange where the employee documents and commits to progressively improve their work.
- What are some barriers you foresee?
- What adjustments are needed to the assessments?
Activity
- Generalized feedback
- Group-based feedback
- Peer-to-peer feedback
- Self-reflections
- Staggered cohorts
- Learning stations
- Leverage external mentors
- Less frequent assessments
Approaches:
Leveraging the Feedback Loop
By Am Sagarwala
Leveraging the Feedback Loop
Discover how to improve your outcomes by leveraging the feedback loop. Explore an ideal process and see how students can manage up effectively. Discover a framework that will help students achieve success and explore feedback approaches to realize learning outcomes.
