Feedback is very important when it comes to virtual learning. Unlike the traditional way of learning, instructors do not have the liberty to studying the faces and reactions of their students. Most of the time, the interaction happens through chat or email. It is harder to decipher the emotions going on while the student is learning.
Are they getting bored? Do you think they get the message? Are you meeting the learning goals of your online course? These are important questions that you should answer as soon as possible. Ideally, you want to get feedback while the online learning is going on. This will allow you to change strategies in case the virtual learning experience is not going as planned. It will also help you improve the succeeding online courses that you will create.
Of course, getting feedback is not that easy. Sometimes, the students are eager to finish the course that they will not stay long enough to give you constructive feedback. When that happens, you could lose the opportunity to spot areas in the course that you can change to take the learning experience to the next level. After all, the best judge of the online course are the students. They can tell you directly if the course
To make this task easier, here are three ways that you can use to collect valuable feedback from students.
Make it part of the online course. Do not make them feel like you are taking more time from their busy lives to answer a feedback form. Insert it during the virtual learning process. For instance, you can include a couple of questions after every phase or at the end of an assessment. That way, you are sure to get relevant feedback. If you place it at the very end of the course, this will be met by tired students who want the course to be over and done with. You might not get the response that you need. By placing it in the middle and in bite-sized forms, this could give you better results. Not only that, their comments will be fresh since they can base their opinions on what just transpired in the lesson.
Give incentives. Another way that you can probably encourage students is through incentives. This can be a simple discount for the next course or additional points on the next session of the virtual learning. This will encourage them to take the time to give honest feedback to help improve the course.
Simplify the questions. You do not want to make it tough for the students to answer your feedback form. Make it a simple yes or no question or better yet, multiple choice. Do not ask them questions that need to be answered by sentences or something similar. Commentary takes too long to complete. You can be sure that they will skip the feedback form. Make it very easy for them to complete the feedback questionnaire. Keep the sentences short as well. That way, the reading time will not be too long.
Depending on your resources and virtual learning goals, you can come up with other ways to get feedback from your students. The important thing is to get it so you can use it to take your online course to the next level.
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