~ Grade exams, papers, and assignments within one week of submission.

~ Provide clear feedback to each student periodically using email or in comments attached to digital assignment links.

~ Inform students of the method(s) to be used for providing individualized feedback and state how often they can expect to hear from you.

~ Track student progress weekly to identify and assist at-risk students promptly.

~ Use the gradebook to record student progress. Encourage students to refer to the gradebook to track their own progress.

~ Respond to students’ discussion board postings in a timely manner. It’s not necessary to respond to every single posting, but it’s appropriate to acknowledge when students have posted exemplary work, are headed in the wrong direction, or are having an interesting discussion about course content. Acknowledging students’ posts demonstrates teacher presence. Remember, when using forums, create your own response to the prompt to model expectations.

~ If students are having technical issues and need to submit assignments via email, reply to each student confirming receipt of the assignment. Also, let students know when they can expect to receive a grade on the assignment. This reduces student anxiety about whether or not their work has been received and creates a realistic timeframe for when students can expect to receive a grade and feedback.

~ Create open book quizzes or games to offer students opportunities to review course content and receive immediate feedback. Consider allowing students to complete quizzes two or three times with the highest score recorded as a small portion of the overall grade.

~ Send or post a weekly summary message to the class to clarify any areas perceived as problematic for students and to acknowledge their work in the course for that week.

~ Provide options for peer review and feedback. Consider grouping students into dyads or triads to exchange papers/assignments with their group members.