Imagine if you could provide feedback to your students that’s not only more engaging and personalized, but also takes less time to create.
Attention MIT Sloan faculty and teaching assistants! Canvas has introduced a new feature that enhances how you provide feedback to your students. The SpeedGrader now includes screen capture and auto-captioning options for giving feedback on student submissions. This update makes your feedback more engaging, personalized, and effective. Let’s explore what this means for you and your students.
What’s New?
The SpeedGrader now allows you to provide feedback to students in several ways:
- Audio recording only
- Webcam video with audio
- Screen capture with audio
- Screen capture with webcam video and audio
These options are available when you access Canvas using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge web browsers. You can choose the combination that best suits your needs and the type of feedback you want to provide. Additionally, if you record audible speech, the system automatically generates captions for your recordings, enhancing accessibility for all students.
Why Use Multi-Modal Feedback?
These varied feedback options offer several advantages over traditional written comments:
- Enhances clarity: You can visually guide students through their work, pointing out specific areas for improvement or highlighting exemplary sections (Chiappetta, 2021). Visual guidance combined with verbal explanations offers multiple means of representation—a key principle of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST, 2018). This approach facilitates learning and knowledge transfer by helping students make connections within and between concepts.
- Boosts efficiency and effectiveness: Multi-modal feedback leverages the speed of speaking over typing, allowing you to provide more comprehensive feedback in less time. This efficiency enables you to deliver both prompt and detailed feedback, which is essential for effective student learning. By striking a balance between quick response times and thorough review, you can provide feedback when it’s most relevant and actionable. This approach allows students to more readily apply insights to their current and future work, enhancing their overall learning experience (Borup, 2021).
- Reduces misinterpretation: Your tone of voice and visual cues can help convey nuance and prevent misunderstandings that sometimes occur with written feedback (Chiappetta, 2021).
- Adds a personal touch: Video feedback adds a human element to your comments, helping to build stronger connections with your students, especially in larger classes or online courses (Stafford, 2023).
- Improves student engagement: Students often find video feedback more engaging and are more likely to review and act on it compared to written comments (Subramonian, 2024).
How Can You Use This Feature Effectively?
Here are some tips to make the most of multi-modal feedback:
- Show, don’t just tell: Use your cursor to highlight specific parts of the student’s work as you discuss them. This visual guidance can significantly enhance understanding (Pryke et al., 2023).
- Provide a balanced perspective: Aim for a delicate balance between praise and constructive criticism in your feedback. Start by acknowledging what the student has done well, then address areas for improvement, and conclude with encouragement for future work. This approach, often referred to as the “feedback sandwich,” can help maintain student motivation and make them more receptive to suggestions for improvement (University of Wisconsin-Madison, n.d.).
- Keep it concise: Aim for videos around 3-5 minutes long. This length is typically sufficient to provide detailed feedback without overwhelming the student (Chiappetta, 2021).
- Use the rubric: If you’re evaluating student work with a rubric, consider showing how you’ve scored each criterion. This can help students understand how their work aligns with expectations (Pryke et al., 2023).
- Offer actionable advice: Don’t just point out issues; provide specific suggestions for improvement. This turns your feedback into a valuable learning opportunity (Stafford, 2023).
- Encourage reflection and dialogue: Invite students to “reflect on their work and your comments” (Stafford, 2023) and respond to your feedback or ask questions. This can foster a more interactive and productive learning process (Thompson & Lee, 2012).
Benefits for Students
Multi-modal feedback can significantly enhance the learning experience for your students:
- Clearer understanding: Visual and auditory explanations can help students grasp complex concepts more easily (Subramonian, 2024).
- Personalized learning: Students feel more connected to the course and instructor, which can boost motivation and engagement (Pryke et al., 2023).
- Flexibility: Students can pause, rewind, and re-watch the feedback as needed, allowing them to learn at their own pace.
- Improved accessibility: Auto-generated captions ensure that the feedback is accessible to all students.
By adopting this feedback method, you’re not just grading; you’re creating mini-lessons tailored to each student’s needs (Chiappetta, 2021). This personalized approach can lead to more effective learning outcomes and a more satisfying teaching experience for you (CAST, 2018).
Getting Started
Ready to try multi-modal feedback? Here are three steps to get started:
- Pick one assignment: Choose an upcoming or low-stakes assignment to experiment with video or audio feedback. Start small—just a few students to get the feel for it.
- Outline key points: Jot down 2-3 key points you want to highlight in your feedback. This helps you stay focused and keep it short.
- Test the waters: Try SpeedGrader’s new screen capture or audio recording feature.
Don’t worry about perfection—your students will appreciate the personalized effort and clarity, even if it’s not flawless.
How-to Guides
For step-by-step instructions, refer to Canvas’s guides for:
How to Get Support
- Canvas provides 24/7 support to faculty, staff, TAs, and students. For immediate help, click the Help button in the Global Navigation Menu.
- If you still need assistance, submit a ticket and we’ll connect you with the resources and support you need right away.
See How to Get Help with Canvas for more details.
Key Takeaways
The new screen capture and auto-captioning features in Canvas’s SpeedGrader offer powerful tools to enhance your feedback process and your students’ learning experience. By leveraging these tools, you can:
- Offer detailed, visual guidance
- Create stronger connections with students
- Provide timely and efficient feedback
- Encourage reflection and dialogue
- Enhance accessibility and flexibility
We’d love to hear about your experiences. How has audio and video feedback impacted your teaching and your students’ learning? Share your insights and help us continue to improve the teaching and learning experience at MIT Sloan.
References
Borup, J. (2021, February 3). Back to feedback basics using video recordings. EDUCAUSE Review. https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2021/2/back-to-feedback-basics-using-video-recordings
CAST. (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Chiappetta, E. (2021, May 4). The benefits of using screencasts to give students feedback. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-using-screencasts-give-students-feedback/
Pryke, S., Rees, M., & Witton, G. (2023). “It makes you feel like they’ve actually put effort into it.” Students’ perceptions of screen-capture video feedback on assignments on a social science course. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2023.2167839
Stafford, T. M. (2023, June 8). Feedback that fuels: Enhancing student engagement and learning in online courses. Medium. https://medium.com/id-confidential/feedback-that-fuels-enhancing-student-engagement-and-learning-in-online-courses-168d4bf82d19
Subramonian, W. (2024, August 8). Why we should be giving feedback via video. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/why-we-should-be-giving-feedback-video
Thompson, R., & Lee, M. J. (2012). Talking with students through screencasting: Experimentations with video feedback to improve student learning. The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 1(1). https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/talking-with-students-through-screencasting-experimentations-with-video-feedback-to-improve-student-learning/
University of Wisconsin-Madison. (n.d.). Evaluating high-stakes writing using screencast feedback. Writing Across the Curriculum. https://dept.writing.wisc.edu/wac/newsletter-2/online-writing-toolkit/evaluating-high-stakes-writing-using-screencast-feedback/
