In the long and distant past, getting feedback on learners was something that just didn’t happen… the only real feedback that any practitioner got was through assessment. Though assessment is useful to get feedback on whether learners have learnt anything, it doesn’t help very much in getting feedback from learners if the process of learning is working. Would learners who get a C grade have got a B grade if the teaching had been more engaging? Would the learners who dropped out (failed) been a success if the teaching was more suited to their needs?
Getting feedback is important part of any learning process to ensure future success.
In the recent past, feedback has often been obtained through end of year or course surveys, or slightly better end of term surveys. Problem with any paper based survey is that someone has to crunch the results. That can take time, so you probably do it rarely.
A VLE can be used quite easily to host a feedback survey. Many feedback tools can be replicated so that they can be copied (or refreshed) for each lesson. This means it can not only be easy to setup, but quick and easy to copy for each lesson.
The feedback can be on how the learners felt about the lesson or what they learnt. This can then be used by the practitioner to improve future lessons or to change activities and assessments. Aggregated feedback from all the lessons and across the curriculum area can also be used to feed into any self-assessment process.
Moodle has a Feedback module that allows a series of questions to be posed to learners. This will collate the responses that can then be exported to Excel if required. Another module on Moodle that can be used is EasyVoter for a more immediate response in the lesson itself. Though of course all the learners need to have a computer to take advantage of this feature. The advantage of the Feedback module is that it can be done later at home, in the Library, or in a coffee shop.
There are other uses for EasyVoter, Feedback or other similar tools within the VLE, but lesson feedback is a useful way of using the VLE to improve the quality of the learner experience.