As an author, all activities and tasks have a space for automatic feedback. Learners attempt a task, then once they press submit, the feedback pops up.

Unlike writing feedback when you're marking an individual learner's work, writing the auto feedback can be a real challenge because the feedback you write will be presented to all learners. But challenges are good right?

Some of the tasks in your course will be typical closed questions where there is a "right" answer. Your auto-marked tasks would fall into this category. Others will be open questions where learners could give a whole range of correct answers. With closed questions the challenge is writing something more meaningful than "Yes, the correct answer is...". And with open questions the challenge is that although there is no right answer, you still want your auto feedback to help the learners gauge if they're on the right track.

Let's take a look at a few options for the sorts of things you can include in auto feedback.

Note: You can mix and match any of these approaches in a piece of feedback. You needn't pick just one.

The simplest option for auto feedback is often to write exactly what an exemplary learner would write. This helps learners because it shows them what "good" looks like and they can compare their answer with the model.

When we give a model answer, it might be immediately obvious to us what makes this answer exemplary. But it might not be so obvious for our learners. So, as well as giving the model answer you can point out the parts that make it good. You can also include questions that prompt them to compare their answer. For instance "In your answer did you include...?"

In this approach, you can feedback to incorporate more teaching via explaining rationale for answers/exemplary elements.

Rubrics are an even more structured and rigorous way for learners to self-assess. Self-assessment leads to better learning. However, if your learners aren't used to self-assessing or reading rubrics, they'll need some scaffolding to really get the most out of it. For instance, you might start them off with just a checklist of what their response should have covered.

We're particularly keen on the single-point rubric as an introduction for learners who might be overwhelmed by a more complex rubric.

New to rubrics? See Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics.

Give feedback that focuses on one example, but one you think would be common across many people. For instance, “Some people find that they revert to a different teaching style when they’re tired or stressed. This is not surprising because....” This way you can use the feedback to slip in some more learning.

Give feedback that asks more questions. Questions that help learners to dig deeper into their initial response. For instance, in a task that ask learners about how a classroom activity went, we ask: “As you read over your response, think about why that activity might have resulted in more discussion. Are there particular steps or strategies you used? What is it specifically about steps that encouraged more discussion?” 

When you do this, you can use the feedback to get learners to dig deeper and really explore their response. Often with these questions, you might also want to prompt learners to do something with their digging deeper or use it as a segue to a more complex idea.

Feedforward to give learners their next steps. You'll probably want to cover those learners needing more support and those who might be looking for extension. This might be suggesting people/places to seek support, linking out to further resources or using the question approach above to prompt learners to think about more complex or inter-related ideas.

The feedforward approach can also support learners' views of themselves as a life-long learners or reflective practitioners.

There are so many options for getting the most out of feedback (and delivering value for your learners). So although you might be able to leave the feedback area blank or write a simple "Well done." - why would you?