[ARCHIVED] [ARCHIVED] Content Rating Feedback in Pages

[mchild76]

Has anyone had a need, or attempted, to capture student input on the usefulness/helpfulness of content delivered within a structured module using pages?

The course I am currently working on is part two of a graduate data analytics course. The course is inherently complex and the modules are structured in three parts. First, the instructor lays the theoretical background through lecture video, text, and with additional web periodicals where professionals discuss the various challenges. Then, he breaks down the processes one by one through text direction and demonstration videos. He incorporates sample files which allow students to follow along if they choose. Finally, students dive into an assignment which asks they apply what they have learned through the reading and the examples mentioned previously. 

Having taught the first part of this two-part study several semesters now, he is looking to identify the quality of the demonstrations and examples he is providing. Student performance varies along a standard curve and students come into these courses with a wide range of previous ability. 

In a dream world, there would be a way for students to mark pages as helpful. Has anyone attempted to do this and how? The content is already so intensive adding additional feedback surveys into each module isn't reasonable.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[awilliams]

Hey mchild76‌. I love this topic!

I'm practicing my tl;dr skills so:

tl;dr: Getting that micro-feedback can be hard! More tools would be great!

When I attended my first #instcon we did something called an UnConference and one of the topics was Active Listening and Rapid Iteration of Course Design." We talked about a lot of things that I feel would be relevant to this discussion. Here's the summary I wrote to help explain the session:

I got to thinking about this after writing my Feature Idea Proposal inspired by Kona Jones. It reminded me of an article I read about Slack’s “Epic Launch Strategy” which described how in their early stages they decided to “Make Active Listening Your Core Competency.” So fresh off writing the idea post, and being reminded of that article, I was trying to think of a session proposal for the UnConference and it “clicked” why can’t the same philosophy be applied to teaching, course design, and student-centered learning.

In the article the founder says in regards to their take on marketing, “Most importantly, getting the story out doesn’t end when an article is published. In fact, by Butterfield’s estimation, that’s only about 20% of the recipe for media success. “The other 80% is people posting about that article.” I think this is a very profound statement and in the context of teaching, how often does the thought-process of the learning environment cease after classes start? There is also a great piece by Paul France on the Instructure Keep Learning blog that highlights this. So, without further ado:

Questions:

• What tools already exist to capture student feedback
• What are the pros and cons of these tools
• What tools should be developed within Canvas to foster student feedback
• How does one assess student feedback objectionably and interpret it appropriately
  • Not all feedback will be constructive or useful
  • It can be hard not to take negative feedback personally
  • Feedback can conflict with other feedback
• How does one process this feedback and iterate from it

Here is the resulting notes document from the session:

Active Listening and Rapid Integration - Google Docs 

Here is an idea I created (mentioned above) and a follow-up. Neither made the cut but they created good discussion nonetheless.

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1659 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/5172 

Keep us posted on what you're trying and how it's working.

[awilliams]

I almost forgot to add this idea I had for a new faculty training course I was going to build at my last job. I was going to build all the content as discussions. There's a built in commenting system that way and the likes might be able to add value. Technically, you could embed a google form or similar into the description of that discussion too...

[kona]

This brings back such great memories... AND, reminds me that I still really think something like this would be super useful! I would love that type of feedback for my videos and different tutorials/guides in my course. Or even my assignments. So... it isn't perfect, but what if the Instructor used Canvas survey (even though I'd probably use Survey Monkey to be honest) and did a survey at the end of each week where the content/assignment was listed and then there was a rating scale indicating how helpful/useful/etc the item was. The Instructor could also include open ended questions where students could provide qualitative feedback. It's not perfect, but it would help capture the information you're wanting.

[jdick1]

Even just getting the Helpful Y/N as an option for content pages would be...helpful! ETA if there's already a way to do this, would love to get pointed in the right direction.

[laurakgibbs]

Such a great question, mchild76! This is the kind of analytics we need. Something more than just grades and eyeballs on screen. 

Of course, in the absence of anything automated, you can just ASK students. Ask, and they will tell you.

I would suggest creating a GOOGLE FORM, adding the Google Form to the left-hand menu so it is always accessible from everywhere in the course, and then creating the form in such a way that there's a good drop-down menu inside the form so students can quickly identity what content item they are evaluating. My guess is that you will actually get the best responses from an open-ended question rather than from star-based ratings, but if you do star-based ratings, I recommend an even number so that they have to commit, instead of just going for the "middle" rating.

It's super-easy to add a Google Form to the left-hand menu with the Redirect Tool.

[swinning]

Hi Melissa,

We thought about doing something like this as well. We have a few projects where we would love to get feedback from students to verify that what we've created is actually helpful for them.

Have you thought about using an embedded survey on the page to capture those results?

[swinning]

Sorry for my redundant post - I didn't update this page before posting and didn't see that people had already suggested the same idea

[rlbrown21]

I do like this idea a lot.  We had this at the "module" level in moodle, and students almost never used it.