This document discusses providing feedback to students in online courses to engage them and motivate their learning. It outlines various tools that can be used for online feedback, including discussion forums, learning journals, podcasts, screencasts, and interactive tools like Kaizena. Kaizena allows instructors to record audio and text comments directly onto students' work and supports tracking changes. Students found the personalized audio feedback from Kaizena to be helpful for improving their writing and learning. The document advocates balancing corrective feedback with higher-order concerns to guide students' development and avoid overfocusing on errors.

1. FEEDBACK TO
ENGAGE STUDENTS
Vedrana Vojković Estatiev
Paris, TESOL France Colloquium, November 2015

2. Who’s this?
photo by @mandakelly4884

3. Overview
Basic information on the course
Motivational impact of online
feedback
Tools for online feedback
Student views

4. Writing in English
Center for Croatian
Studies, University of
Zagreb, Croatia
Undergraduate
Communication
Studies program
1 semester (4
months) online in
Moodle
Cca 15 students
(Croatian +
exchange)
Level B2-C1 (CEFR)
Borongaj Campus, photo from www.srce.hr

5. Motivational impact of online feedback
“Facilitation is critical to the success of
an online course as it fosters and
maintains the interest and motivation of
students.” (Anderson et al., 2001)
Facilitation also involves the provision
of insightful, timely and objective
feedback that enables students to
develop their learning skills (Shepherd,
2000).
The lack of feedback can lead to
disillusionment with the learning
programme and eventually withdrawal.
(Packham et al., 2004)
All quotes from: Packham G., Jones P., Thomas B. & Miller C. (2006). Student and Tutor Perspectives of
On-line Moderation. Education and Training, 48(4), pp.241-251. Doi: 10.1108/00400910610671915

6. Discussion forum - interaction

7. Discussion forum - summary

8. Learning journal entries

9. Feedback on journal entries - comments

10. Involve assistant moderators
Four (graduate)
students
Interact in forum
discussions
Comment on journal
entries
Use Facebook to
communicate

11. Corrective feedback on written work –
how much?
“A lopsided focus on written errors can easily
convey the message that grammatical
accuracy is what ‘good’ writing is all about
and cause students to lose sight of other
significant dimensions of writing.” (Lee, 2001)

12. Corrective feedback tools
Podcasts
Screencasts
Interactive tools

13. Podcasting tools
vocaroo.com

14. Podcasting with Vocaroo
Advantages
Free, no
registration
Easy to use
Files easy to
share and
manipulate
Disadvantages
Recording quality
dubious, ads
No visual
accompaniment
to feedback
No easy way of
checking student
has understood
feedback

15. Screencasting tools
screencastomatic.com

16. Screencasting with Screencastomatic
Advantages
Free, no
registration
Easy to use
Files easy to
share and
manipulate
Disadvantages
Free up to 15
minutes
Can be time-
consuming
No easy way of
checking student
has understood
feedback

17. Example screencast

18. Interactive tools
kaizena.com

19. Kaizena and technology
Advantages
Free, easy to
use for Ss and
T
Files easily
accessible –
cloud storage
Allows
interaction
between Ss
and T
Disadvantages
Dependent on
Google
Audio feedback
can get deleted
accidentally
Updates can
cause glitches

20. Kaizena installation
Kaizena mini add-on as
seen in browser
Kaizena mini add-on in
Google Docs

21. Working in a document

22. Types of feedback
voice comments, text comments, links to other content

23. Tracking changes
Simple revision history Detailed revision history

24. Benefits of Kaizena
Feedback
can be
highly personalized
scaled up as necessary
provided in different
modes
easily checked to make
sure students have
understood
allows students to ask
questions

25. Student views
“It was so funny when I realized that I
can hear the comments! I was like a
child when it discovers a new toy.”
Detail feedback was great! I wish my teachers
did it when I was in high school because I
might learned much more. Comparing my
writing now and at the beginning of the
semester I would say that I have improved it
and I'm definitely more confident about it.
“And I have to say that Kaizena tool is very,
very, but VERY practical and useful. I think
some of my mistakes are repeating in my
writing style, but this kind of indicating the
mistakes and thoroughly correcting them with
‘how and why’ is superb.”

26. Thanks very much for your attention!
I’ll also be happy to answer any additional questions at:
vvojkovic@hrstud.hr