NTLSN · Crash Course · Feedback

Feedback that works — a crash course

Most feedback is written, read once, and never used. Four short lessons on making feedback land — then a self-check you can run before your next marking pile.

The one thing to remember: feedback isn't what you say, it's what students do next. Design for the reply and the next task, not for the comment.
4 lessons~10 min read1 self-checkGrounded in Boud & Molloy, Hattie, feedback-literacy research

The lessons

1
Feedback is a dialogue, not a deliveryFrom telling to exchange
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Feedback that's only transmitted rarely changes anything. Treat it as a loop: students need a chance to respond, ask, and act.

  • Invite a reply — a question, a plan, a revision — rather than closing the comment.
  • Comment on the work against shared criteria, not on the student.
  • Make space, even brief, for students to act on it before the next high-stakes task.
Grounded in
  • Feedback Mark 2 / feedback as dialogue (Boud & Molloy)
  • Developing student feedback literacy (Carless & Boud)
2
Feed-forwardTell them what to do next
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Students can't change a grade that's already in. The most useful feedback is about the next piece of work, not just the last one.

  • Lead with the one or two things that will most improve the next task.
  • Be specific and actionable — ‘do X’ beats ‘be clearer’.
  • Connect this task's lesson to where it'll be used again.
3
Timely & sustainable at scalePersonal feedback without burning out
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Late feedback is dead feedback. The trick is to make it timely and personal without doubling your workload.

  • Use short audio or screen-capture comments — faster to give, warmer to receive.
  • Front-load common issues: a whole-class debrief, then targeted individual notes.
  • Use rubrics and exemplars so students can self-assess before they submit.
Grounded in
  • Audio/video feedback; rubric & exemplar practice
  • Visible Learning on the timing and dosage of feedback (Hattie)
4
Build feedback literacyHelp students use what you give
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Even great feedback fails if students can't interpret or act on it. Feedback literacy is a skill you can teach.

  • Teach students to read criteria, judge their own work, and seek feedback.
  • Use peer feedback to build the skill (and lighten your load).
  • Ask students what feedback helped — and design more of that.
Grounded in
  • Student feedback literacy frameworks
  • Peer review & calibrated peer practice
◇ Bring it together — from the NTLSN commons
Browse “Feedback” resourcesPeer review resourcesCross-marker calibration369 sector videos

Before your next marking run — a quick self-check

✓
My feedback invites a response or a next action.
✓
I've led with what to do on the NEXT task, not just what went wrong.
✓
It's specific and actionable, not ‘be clearer’.
✓
It will reach students in time to use it.
✓
Students have criteria/exemplars to self-assess before submitting.
✓
I'm using audio/peer methods to keep it sustainable.
Source & attribution. Curated from established feedback scholarship (feedback as dialogue; feedback literacy; visible learning) and sector good practice indexed by the NTLSN commons. Practitioner synthesis, not original research — see the linked archive for the primary sources.
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