Screenside Chats feature online practitioners as they discuss their experiences, strategies, and tools building and interacting in pedagogically sound online learning environments.
In this Screenside Chat, IU High School social studies teacher, Christine Hitchcock, shares how she builds relationships through the feedback conversations she has with students in her online courses.
Please watch the video and then join the conversation below!
I watched the screenside chat between Rebecca Itow and Christine Hitchcock called “Building Relationships Through Feedback.” My biggest takeaway was all the options for personalizing the feedback to cement those connections between us and students.
I liked Christine’s ideas for using emojis not only for visual cues about tone, but also for alerting to students about content comments (examples: green check for “good point”, hammer for “this needs a little work” :-), as well as her emphasis that in writing, we can always use more visual reminders that there is kindness and helpfulness underlying our comments, and that tone can be misread in words alone. I think this visual system is a workable one, in which I could give students a key of what my symbols mean at the start of the semester, and maybe add to it over time, and include it in the rubric that I give them on Canvas for essays. I also would like to have some sort of symbol that indicates that I want students to respond to me, or show me that they have read my comments.
I also appreciated the reminder that a variety of feedback methods can help us make connection with students — for example, leaving audio and/or visual comments can have a bigger impact than words alone.
Thank you for your practical suggestions in this chat!
I really liked Christine’s idea of giving the red question mark and that students then need to respond to what she is asking. I also like that idea of giving feedback via video or a audio file. I actually think that could be a quicker way to get messages to students. I have felt in the past that I can write and write and write feedback but it feels like it goes unread. If there was a way to get feedback to our feedback I think that would be amazing. At least to know that the student read what we took the time to write. I love her idea of emojis as well. I think that is a great way to help show not only that you care but also a bit of your personality which I think is so important if you want to really get to know the students.
Jenna, yes! Great points. I am a text heavy responder, and I feel, like you, that I write and write, and am not sure they read it. I think, too, that writing that can get overwhelming for kids to read, process, and act on (especially if they are not strong readers). Some of the alternative feedback methods discussed, especially audio feedback for me provides variety and ease, and may help kids with screen time weariness.