Communicate 4.1.1 Evaluation Methods and Communication Practices

• How do communication practices in the online environment correlate to effective feedback?

Communication, whether is be email, voicemail, comment on a discussion post, to text, allows the student and teacher to check in and stay connected and involved in the learning process.

• Why is authentic feedback important for online learners?

Authentic feedback is especially important for online learners to make them feel included.  Lacking the F2F atmosphere and non-verbal communication, online learners can easily fade into the background or feel like they are just a number so consistent and meaningful feedback from instructors is especially important.

• In what ways might an instructor enrich a student’s online experience through feedback?

I love a lot of things about this article, Technology Integration Research: Additional Tools and Programs by Vanessa Vega .  I think it has some great ideas for using formative assessment and feedback effectively.  I really think that this answers the question on how an instructor might enrich a student's online experience through feedback:

• Checking for real-time student understanding of content being taught

• Diagnosing student misconceptions and misunderstandings

• Displaying responses of the group to trigger discussion and reflection

• Gathering formative data to guide instruction

• Saving time in administering and scoring quizzes

• Introducing and monitoring peer learning methods