questions, options and feedback can all be fine-tuned and polished. It is then
possible to edit and improve the test or exercise.
12 Use computer-delivered tests or exercises to gather feedback from
learners. For example, you can set a few multiple-choice questions to ask
learners what they think about the test or exercise (not scoring such questions
of course). You may be surprised to find out how much learners like the
computer-delivered format, particularly if they find your feedback
comments helpful and relevant.37 Giving learners feedback using e-mail
E-mail is particularly useful as a vehicle for giving learners individual feedback
on tutor-marked work. The following suggestions may help you to exploit the
benefits of e-mail, not least to save you time and energy in giving learners
feedback.
1 Make the most of the comfort of privacy. When learners receive feedback
by e-mail (as opposed to face-to-face or in group situations), they have the
comfort of being able to read the feedback without anyone seeing their
reactions to it. This can be useful when the feedback is complex, and there is
a lot of information to take in. It can also be useful when the feedback is
critical; although sometimes written criticism can sound very cold. You will
need to judge when it would be more appropriate to ask a learner actually to
see you about a particular piece of work.
2 Remember that you can edit your own feedback before you send it. For
example, you may well want to adjust individual feedback comments in the
light of that learner’s overall performance. It is much harder to edit
handwritten feedback on a learner’s written work. E-mail feedback allows
you to type in immediate feedback to things that you see in each learner’s
work, and to adjust or delete particular parts of your feedback as you go
further into marking their work.
3 Exploit the space. Inserting handwritten feedback comments into learners’
written work is limited by the amount of space that there may be for your
comments. With e-mail feedback, you don’t have to restrict your wording if
you need to elaborate on a point.
4 Consider combining e-mail feedback with written feedback. For
example, you can write on to learners’ work a series of numbers or letters, at
the points where you wish to give detailed feedback. The e-mail feedback
can then translate these numbers or letters into feedback comments or
phrases, so that learners can see exactly what each element of feedback is
telling them. The fact that learners then have to decode each feedback
element may help them to think about it more deeply, and learn from it more
effectively, than when they can see the feedback directly on their work.70 500 TIPS FOR TESOL