Small Teaching Online - Chapter 5

I recently attended a professional development event for my 9-to-5, and a majority of the attendees were faculty or hold faculty-adjacent roles. Several times over the course of the event, the book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James Lang was praised. I put the book on my TBR list, but I couldn’t find it in the library. But all was not lost: its companion book, Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby with James Lang was available. I checked out the book to get some tips on improving my online courses, but I also thought it might have some applicability to designing eLearning experiences. I am learning a good bit about linking learning theory to practice in online environments, so I thought I would share. For the next several weeks, I’ll go over a chapter of the book each Wednesday and how it relates to instructional design. 

In Chapter 5: “Giving Feedback” Darby presents the following:

📖 Theory: Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College by Walvoord and Anderson

💡Models

• Set deadlines strategically

• Have real, just-in-time, conversations

• Get creative with virtual office hours

• Use tech to streamline grading

• Give meaningful comments via media tolls

📌 Principles: 

• Be timely and responsive

• Take advantage of tech

• Put yourself in your students' shoes

🎯 Quick Tips:

• Schedule deadlines to coincide with your availability to answer questions in advance and return graded work after

• Talk to your students in real time

• Take a creative approach to offering office hours

• Create LMS rubrics

• Record audio/video feedback

How do we use some of these Models, Principles, and Tips in eLearning projects? 

🚀 Application to Instructional Design

This chapter is about the importance of feedback in the learning process. Giving formative and summative feedback is critical in helping learners understand the material and progress through the lessons. In many eLearning situations, feedback looks different than in a traditional online course. Which is why scenario-based eLearning is so important-- it provides immediate feedback, letting learners know what they did right or wrong through the consequences of their decisions. This provides the timely and effective feedback Darby advocates.

A few options for non-scenario-based eLearning would be traditional instructor feedback, depending on the scale of the experience. For large scale situations where personable feedback from the instructor isn't possible, generative AI could be an effective tool. Embedding a bot that can understand the assignment and give appropriate feedback has the potential to provide timely (immediate) and effective (if given to correct peramaters) feedback.

I would love to hear from other IDs-- what creative ways have you found to give timely and effective feedback?