Research suggests that students want specific and detailed feedback from their instructors (Balaji & Chakrabarti, 2010). Who wouldn’t? It’s disappointing to invest hours researching and writing a paper or designing a poster only to receive few or no comments from their instructor. Even more demoralizing to some students is receiving a below par grade with little explanation or constructive feedback. This is even more true in online classes where the lack of personal contact can make it more difficult to gauge performance.
Option #1: Audio Recordings
Many learning management platforms have built-in audio tools. For example, Moodle has “PoodLL.” There are also several free online tools for voice recording. Vocaroo is a popular choice, as is the record feature in Evernote, which allows you to record, save, and email recordings as audio and text.Option #2: Screencasts
Screencasts allow instructors to record their screen while recording their voice. With this method, the focus is on the students’ work that is featured on the instructor’s screen. Below is an example of an instructor providing feedback on a design project using Jing, a free screencasting tool you can download. Screencast-o-matic is another free tool that you can use without downloading. Check out Kathy Schrock’s article Screencasting in the Classroom for more information on creating screencasts. With both audio recordings and screencasts, it’s best not to sound too formal. Speaking naturally as you would to a student face-to-face feels more authentic to students. This means you don’t have to re-record if your phone rings or your cat meows in the background.Final thoughts
A long-time online educator outlines in a blog post Audio feedback and human touch her methods and rationale for using screencast and audio feedback for student assignments. She captures the essence of how students benefit from this feedback in the following paragraph.All in all, I feel that by using voice recording and screencasting tools, we can now provide more personal, more meaningful and more effective instruction in an acoustically and/or visually supported manner. Intonation and voice tone both help to convey feelings, which in turn really help to create tutor presence and build rapport (the human touch). Finally, since students can decide when, where and how often they listen/watch, an element of choice is added, an important step towards promoting learner autonomy.
– Veronica's Teaching Online Blog, Audio feedback and human touch, 2013
