One of the emerging accepted uses of technology to improve learning is that
of electronic discussion.  Faculty perceptions and a growing body of
research strongly suggest that using electronic discussion forums, email and
listservs improves the quality and quantity of student participation in
discussions.  Given this I have wondered if what ever is going on here also
would apply to giving students feedback.  The following are some thoughts on
this issue recently posted to a discussion forum I am a member of.

               GIVING PUPILS FEEDBACK USING E-MAIL

E-mail is particularly useful as a vehicle for giving pupils
individual feedback on assessed work, and can save you time and
energy as you mark their work.  E-mail feedback can extend usefully,
from time to time, to giving pupils feedback on hand-written work
that they have submitted for assessment.  The following suggestions
may help you to exploit the benefits of e-mail, not least to save you
time and energy in giving pupils feedback:

* Make the most of the comfort of privacy.  When pupils receive
feedback by e-mail (as opposed to face-to-face or in class), they
have the comfort of being able to read the feedback without anyone
(particularly you!) being able to see their reactions to it.  This is
most useful when you need to give some critical feedback to pupils.

* Remember that you can edit your own feedback before you send it.
For example, you may well want to adjust individual feedback comments
in the light of pupils' overall performance.  It's much harder to
edit your own hand-written feedback on pupils' written work.  E-mail
feedback allows you to type in immediate feedback to things that you
see in each pupil's work, and to adjust or delete particular parts of
your feedback as you go further into marking their work.

* Exploit the space.  Inserting hand-written feedback comments into
pupils' written work is limited by the amount of space that there may
be for your comments.  With e-mail feedback, you don't have to
restrict your wording if you need to elaborate on a point.

* Consider combining e-mail feedback with written feedback.
Occasionally, for example, you can write on to pupils' work a series
of numbers of letters, at the points where you wish to give detailed
feedback.  The e-mail feedback can then translate these numbers or
letters into feedback comments or phrases, so that pupils can see
exactly what each element of feedback is telling them.  The fact that
pupils sometimes have to decode the feedback can help them to think
about it more deeply, and learn from it effectively.

* Spare yourself from repeated typing.  When designing
computer-delivered feedback messages, you should aim towards only
having to type each important message once.  You can then copy and
paste any of the messages when you need to give several pupils the
same feedback information.  It can be useful to combine this process
with numbers or letters which you write on pupils' work, and building
up each e-mail to individual pupils by pasting together the feedback
messages which go with each of the numbers or letters.

* Consider the possibilities of 'global' feedback messages.  For
example, you may wish to give all of the pupils in a class the same
feedback message about overall matters arising from a test or
exercise.  The overall message can be pasted into each e-mail before
the individual comments addressed to each pupil.

* Check that your email feedback is getting through.  Most e-mail
systems can be programmed to send you back a message saying when the
e-mail was opened, and by whom.  This can help you to identify any
pupils who are not succeeding at opening their e-mails.  It can also
be useful sometimes to end each e-mail with a question asking the
pupil to reply to you on some point arising from the feedback.  This
helps to make sure that pupils don't just open their e-mail feedback
messages, but have to read them!

* Keep records of your e-mail feedback.  It is easy to keep copies on
disk of all of your feedback to each pupil, and you can open a folder
for each pupil if you wish.  This makes it much easier to keep track
of your ongoing feedback to individual pupils, than when your
hand-written feedback is lost to you when you return their work to
them.  If you use e-mail a lot for feedback, these collections of
feedback save time when you come to writing reports.

* Make the most of the technology.  For example, many e-mail systems
support spell check facilities, which can allow you to type really
fast and ignore most of the resulting errors, until you correct them
all just before sending your message.  This also causes you to
re-read each message, which can be very useful for encouraging you to
add second thoughts that may have occurred to you as you went further
in your assessment of the task.

* Use e-mail to gather feedback from your pupils.  Pupils are often
bolder sitting at a computer terminal than they are face-to-face with
you.  Ask your pupils questions about how they are finding selected
aspects of their studies, but don't turn it into an obvious routine
questionnaire.  Include some open-ended questions, so that they feel
free to let you know how they are feeling about their own progress,
and (if you're brave enough!) about your teaching too.

I hope you find this comments useful... enjoy your summer.

Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820

email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 607-436-2701

"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"