Writing Helpful Recommendations

Feedback Makes a Difference!

As teachers, we provide feedback to our students to help them learn and improve. It stands to reason that feedback can be helpful to us as instructors. The Quality Assurance committee members have an opportunity to provide instructors with a different perspective on the teaching and learning activities in a course. This document will provide you with some suggestions on how to provide feedback in a helpful, positive manner.

UF Standards

UF’s Quality Assurance Committee has created the UF Standards and Markers of Excellence (UFSME). This tool provides faculty with guidelines for creating online courses as well as an instrument for course review. Before you begin your review, familiarize yourself with the standards. You should refer to the Quick Guides which provide explanation and suggestions on how to meet many of the items included in the standards. There is a Quick Guide for each of the five “categories” within the standards:

  • Content
  • Instructional Methods
  • Communication and Interaction
  • Technology
  • Course Accessibility, Design and Organization

Some course elements span more than one category. The exemplary items designated with an “e” are not required, but are included in the UFSME for faculty who are looking for ideas for further course improvement.

UF Policy on Course Syllabi

Some of the UFSME are also required by the UF Syllabus Policy.

Reviewer Materials

Instructor self-review

Prior to the QA course review, the instructor (who may or may not be the course developer) has been invited to do a self-review. The quality of these reviews varies, but ideally it will include questions and requests for suggestions on particular course elements.

Student Evaluations

You will also receive the student evaluation data (without the written comments) from the term being reviewed. The student perceptions of the course can help to guide you to areas of the course that could benefit from some feedback.

Course Access

The FDTE team will request access to the course you have been assigned. When you receive the email with your reviewer assignment and evaluation materials, please log into the Canvas course to make sure you have access. If you do not have access, let the FDTE team know immediately!

If you find that you cannot access key publisher content or other course materials that are integral to the course, inform the FDTE team. It does no good to spend the time on a review if you are missing a significant portion of the course content or activities!

Timeline

In order to be helpful to faculty, it is important to conduct the QA reviews as soon after the completion of the term being reviewed as possible. If you find that you cannot complete your review within two weeks of receiving the review materials, please let the FDTE team know as soon as you can. It may be necessary to change reviewer assignments in order to accommodate busy schedules.

Creating a Helpful Review

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Beginner’s Mind

The overarching goal of the QA course review is to help faculty to teach courses that support quality student learning.

So as you approach the course, put yourself into a student mindset. If you didn’t know anything about how to navigate through an online course, would you know where to start? Would you be able to find the course materials and assignments? And most importantly, would the course engage you?

Be Constructive

When you identify something that may be problematic within the course, suggest at least one solution. If you do not have any suggestions to offer, flag that item for the FDTE team to investigate possible solutions.

Poor:

1.2 / Course goals are clearly stated. / No

Better:

1.2 / Course goals are clearly stated. / I did not find these. Many faculty include the course goals in the syllabus. In fact, it is a requirement of the UF Syllabus Policy.

Be Specific

Do your best to point out specific examples of things that could be improved.

Poor:

1.3 / Course Deadlines are clear. / I found the deadlines to be unclear.

Better:

1.3 / Course Deadlines are clear. / The midterm paper is listed in three different places on the Canvas site (pages, syllabus tool and the .pdf instructions) each listing contains a different deadline.

Be Sensitive

Use a positive tone when writing your comments. Also, be aware that efforts to be brief (and we do want to be short and to the point) may seem abrupt and negative. Come at the review with the perspective of a collaborator who understands that every course is a work in progress. But don’t pussy foot around items that need improvement!

Poor:

3.1 / Participation expectations are explicit and easy to find / I can’t imagine how you expect your students to figure out what they are supposed to do!

Better:

3.1 / Participation expectations are explicit and easy to find. / I recommend that you provide students with a checklist for the teamwork project. It should include the key elements that will be used for the project evaluation. Make the checklist easy for students to find by providing a link in the assignment instructions.

Make it Measureable

The recommendations you make should describe a change that can easily be observed.

Poor (what is the result of “thinking?”):

1.1 / Welcome video from instructor describes and outlines the course. / Think about including a welcome video.

Better (we’ll be able to see the video!):

1.1 / Welcome video from instructor describes and outlines the course. / I suggest that you create a welcome video to start off the class. It will help your students connect with you as well as provide an opportunity for you to share your passion for the course topic!

Be Balanced

Point out strengths as well as weaknesses. Let’s face it, being critiqued is hard! Many of these instructors have poured their heart and soul into these courses. Instructors will be much more receptive to suggestions for improvement if you acknowledge some of the great things that they have already done. Also, we don’t want them to change something that is already good because they didn’t receive feedback on it.

Poor:

1.6 / Course contains engaging lectures/presentations. / Yes.

Better:

1.6 / Course contains engaging lectures/presentations. / You are an excellent video presenter! You effectively communicate your enthusiasm for the topic. Your graphics are clear and do an excellent job of supporting your topics. And with most of your videos being under 8 minutes long, they are short enough to keep the viewer focused.

Remember you are not the only reviewer. You are not responsible for everything and your feedback should remain concise.

No online course is perfect, look for things that work as well as those that might need tweaking.

Don’t:

Share too many personal anecdotes or preference such as “in my course I…”

Provide negative feedback without a helpful, useful suggesting that can lead to change.

What does good feedback include?

Good feedback includes: the UF markers and examples

Good feedback is based on the Markers of excellence and their annotations as well as evidence found in the course. You can provide an example of how an item in the course meets the specific UF marker or does not meet the UF marker. In addition, the feedback or recommendations should include the marker so instructors can refer back to the specific marker themselves. This makes you feedback specific.

Good feedback is actionable

Good feedback is also actionable.Good feedback leads to positive change. It always includes suggestions that can be used. It includes suggestions for how something can be done differently the next time. Even when the markers is met, these recommendations can help improve even great courses.

Example of UF Marker 5.1: course starting point is clearly marked

This is a particularly detailed recommendation. Good recommendations can be much more condensed and still include the needed information.

Good job including a “Getting started” link. The course also provides students with detailed navigational instructions. This is particularly helpful to new to online students. This link provides students with a general overview of the course as well as a detailed overview of how to use the various tools in the course. All of this is very helpful. However, it would be helpful to connect the course policies folder in the getting started folder as these are naturally connected and very important. The course policy folderis where the directions on how to find the various course components, assignments rules,and policies are located. Providing varied access to this information would be helpful. For instance, creating a read this link in the getting started folder would resolve this.

It would also be helpful to include a list of scheduled activities in the getting started folder. Another possibility would be of including a do this first link which would take students to the course policies folder in the getting started folder. The getting started folder does offer a quick overview of the course and a “next step”. That next step could be the course policies folder and it could invite students to explore the various course folders (possibly go on a scavenger hunt?). It is important to invite students to explore the course content. The content found in the course policy folder is invaluable to the students. It is clear and helpful. The getting started folder should direct students to this material.

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