Effective Feedback: the Key to Student Retention and Success

Conference Registration WebCT Homepage

Thursday, July 13, 2006
This presentation is part of 3: Poster Sessions
Effective Feedback: the Key to Student Retention and Success

Description: Feedback is essential for student retention and success. Particularly for online students, feedback must be timely, appropriate, and meaningful. This poster session will present the “what, when, why, and how” of providing rich feedback to help promote student success in the online environment.
Presentation Format: Poster
Topic: Measuring outcomes: Student achievement and course success
Target Audience: Course Designers, Faculty and Other Instructors, E-learning Managers, K-12 Educational Staff
Appropriate Audience Level: Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users
WebCT Version:
Abstract Text: Feedback can be defined as useful information for future decisions and development. It is an integral part of the learning process. First, the importance of feedback for student retention and success must be validated. Then, it must be determined how the benefits can be maximized by timeliness, appropriateness, and accessibility. These concepts can be applied to the online environment where the methodology for feedback often varies dramatically from that for campus classes. For example, the face-to-face discussions may not be possible for distant students. Alternative methods must be incorporated into the learning process. In designing these methods the following items should be considered:

Feedback is essential for student retention and success. WHY is it especially important for an online student?

Feedback must be timely. WHEN is it appropriate?

Feedback must be meaningful. WHAT are alternative feedback methods?

Feedback must be utilized by the student. HOW can the accessing of feedback be tracked?

Sharing ideas and brainstorming will address the WHY, WHEN, WHAT and HOW. A goal of the session is to determine some of the best practices for providing feedback, making it meaningful, and making sure the online students access it. With the permission of the presenters, a summary of the information will be posted to a webpage for use by participants as they prepare for their next online course. Hopefully, the participants will share the information with their colleagues, who may share with their colleagues, who may share with their colleagues, and so on.

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Description:	Feedback is essential for student retention and success. Particularly for online students, feedback must be timely, appropriate, and meaningful. This poster session will present the “what, when, why, and how” of providing rich feedback to help promote student success in the online environment.
Presentation Format:	Poster
Topic:	Measuring outcomes: Student achievement and course success
Target Audience:	Course Designers, Faculty and Other Instructors, E-learning Managers, K-12 Educational Staff
Appropriate Audience Level:	Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users
WebCT Version:
Abstract Text:	Feedback can be defined as useful information for future decisions and development. It is an integral part of the learning process. First, the importance of feedback for student retention and success must be validated. Then, it must be determined how the benefits can be maximized by timeliness, appropriateness, and accessibility. These concepts can be applied to the online environment where the methodology for feedback often varies dramatically from that for campus classes. For example, the face-to-face discussions may not be possible for distant students. Alternative methods must be incorporated into the learning process. In designing these methods the following items should be considered: Feedback is essential for student retention and success. WHY is it especially important for an online student? Feedback must be timely. WHEN is it appropriate? Feedback must be meaningful. WHAT are alternative feedback methods? Feedback must be utilized by the student. HOW can the accessing of feedback be tracked? Sharing ideas and brainstorming will address the WHY, WHEN, WHAT and HOW. A goal of the session is to determine some of the best practices for providing feedback, making it meaningful, and making sure the online students access it. With the permission of the presenters, a summary of the information will be posted to a webpage for use by participants as they prepare for their next online course. Hopefully, the participants will share the information with their colleagues, who may share with their colleagues, who may share with their colleagues, and so on.