Feedback: a quick and effective approach

There are many ideas for improving feedback practice that you can adopt. However, if you provide three to five feedback comments on a piece of assessed work, based on these simple essential elements of feedback, you will most certainly be improving your practice; it should be not only quicker to provide, but more effective for your students’ learning. These elements are:

1. Make your feedback positive; focus on what was done well, and not only what was done badly or overlooked (This was good/went well…).
2. Make your feedback constructive: provide pointers on how to improve future performance (This would be even better if…).
3. Make your feedback connected; show how it links to the criteria against which the work was marked.
4. Make your feedback clear; avoid using any unfamiliar jargon.
5. Make your feedback timely; get feedback to your students in time for them to use it for the next assignment it is relevant for.