Written comments, audio feedback on students' work

TAs/GTAs might be asked to give feedback on students' work including essays, lab reports or other artifacts such as worksheets, presentations, project proposals. Canvas also supports audio feedback and has an annotation tool which can reduce workload when used effectively.

The emphasis of formative feedback is on what needs to change to improve student outcome, even when it is an A+ as there is always room for improvement. Always try and comment on something that has been done well before critiquing the students' work. For example, for an essay feedback might include comments on:

the use of sources "You have included a good amount of detail in your answer and provided good examples from the literature to back up your main points"

structure, grammar and use of language " Your paragraphs could be more clearly linked to help improve the flow of your essay"
the examples used "Keep your examples brief – they should support your discussion rather than be the core component in a paragraph (see for example,...)"

Just a summary comment at the end is less helpful as formative feedback, but can be useful if it is in addition to comments in respective places.

For more examples for essay type assignments, see Some tips for new tutors on marking developed by the School of Environment.

Automated feedback - Canvas quizzes

MCQs - include feedback when incorrect answers are chosen, link to additional resources which can be automated
Quiz feedback (especially for essay-type answers) should be released after quiz completion; can be designed in advance
PeerWise

Peer feedback

Peer review takes on many forms, with group member contribution and the assessment of a student's work/product being the main areas of peer feedback. Whichever method is used, all require clear guidelines and criteria. Encourage your students to participate in the development of the criteria by which to evaluate their group members and/or submissions.

Check out the templates on how to manage group work such as a group contract, group reflections, criteria for evaluating group member contribution, and the advantages/disadvantages of different group feedback methods.