Educator Guide

Three approaches to integrate the Process Feedback Editor into a course.

The Easiest Way to Use Process Feedback in a Course

Simply add the following to an assignment or to your syllabus:

“Use the online editor at www.processfeedback.org for your assignments. After completing, please download and submit your process report PDF.”

Pre-inform your students:

In this course, you may have some assignments that require you to use an online editor that reveals your process. Abundant research demonstrates the value of process-aware learning, which can significantly enhance higher-order thinking abilities like metacognition and self-awareness. Learning to think about the process helps us plan, monitor, and evaluate our learning experiences. Assignments that require using this Process Feedback editor will have a direct link to the editor.

Features

  1. No extra work for educators. Your students can continue submitting their work to you as usual. For instance, if you use Canvas or Blackboard, your students will submit their files to the system as usual.
  2. Easier grading. When students use the editor, grading is easier because a single report PDF that each student submits has everything in it: their final work, their effort summary, and a link to an interactive report.
  3. Learning from peers. If students are allowed to share and discuss their process with each other, they can learn from each other’s approaches. In-depth peer-assessment can be powerful.
  4. Feedback on the process. Providing feedback on a student’s process can have a more positive impact on learning than feedback focused on the final outcome.
  5. No monitoring of students while at work. Students get to share their work only when they are ready to share. They are not monitored while at work.
  6. A highly accessible editor. Student need not install anything or log in to do their work.

How it Works

  1. Once students open the editor link, they see instructions on how to use the editor for their work and a link to a quick tutorial video.
  2. On the editor page, students also see an email address for requesting technical support.
  3. After completing their task, students can download a Word document and process summary report PDF.
  4. The process summary report includes their final work as well as their effort summary information such as how long they took to complete the task, how often they took breaks, how fluently they typed, and whether or not they copy-pasted text during their process. It also contains a link to the full interactive version of the report.
  5. Students can submit the report PDF directly to your institution’s learning management system, such as Canvas, Moodle, or Blackboard.
  6. For grading, you can continue to use your existing system as usual.
  7. Here is what a student’s writing process report looks like and here is what a computer programming report looks like.

Our Recommended Approach to Using Process Feedback

Features

  1. No extra work for educators. Your students can continue submitting their work to you as usual. For instance, if you use Canvas or Blackboard, your students will submit their files to the system as usual.
  2. Easier grading. When students use the editor, grading is easier because a single report PDF that each student submits has everything in it: their final work, their effort summary, and a link to an interactive report.
  3. Learning from peers. If students are allowed to share and discuss their process with each other, they can learn from each other’s approaches. In-depth peer-assessment can be powerful.
  4. Feedback on the process. Providing feedback on a student’s process can have a more positive impact on learning than feedback focused on the final outcome.
  5. No monitoring of students while at work. Students get to share their work only when they are ready to share. They are not monitored while at work.
  6. A highly accessible editor unique to your course. Student need not install anything or log in to do their work. Seeing the course name on top of the editor connects them to your course while they are doing their work.
  7. End-of-the-term student engagement report. Upon request, our team can generate and share with you a comprehensive end-of-the-term student engagement report for you or your department to learn from the student engagement data. 

How it Works

  1. This approach is just a slight personalization of simply asking students to use Process Feedback editor. Instead of using the default editor, in this approach, you create an editor that has your course name on top of the sidebar of the editor that students will be using.
  2. When students click on the editor link you provide them, they will see an editor that has your course name on top of the sidebar.
  3. Here is an example editor for a writing course and here is one for a computer programming course.
Create an Editor

Using Process Feedback to Compare Student Submissions (and use as a mini-LMS)

Features

  1. No extra work for educators. Your students can continue submitting their work to you as usual. For instance, if you use Canvas or Blackboard, your students will submit their files to the system as usual.
  2. Easier grading. When students use the editor, grading is easier because a single report PDF that each student submits has everything in it: their final work, their effort summary, and a link to an interactive report.
  3. Learning from peers. If students are allowed to share and discuss their process with each other, they can learn from each other’s approaches. In-depth peer-assessment can be powerful.
  4. Feedback on the process. Providing feedback on a student’s process can have a more positive impact on learning than feedback focused on the final outcome.
  5. No monitoring of students while at work. Students get to share their work only when they are ready to share. They are not monitored while at work.
  6. A highly accessible editor. Student need not install anything or log in to do their work.

How it Works

  1. This approach is quite different from the first two. In this approach, the Process Feedback website serves you like a full learning management system where you create a question, students submit answers, and you can view all student submissions in a single dashboard.
  2. First, you prepare a question(s) with a submission deadline, and create a link where your students can submit answers.
  3. When students open the editor link, they see the question you posted on top of the editor.
  4. Once students complete the task, they can view their report and click “Submit” to post their work.
  5. As students complete their work and submit, you can see all submissions to your question in a single dashboard.
  6. In addition to viewing each student’s submission, you can also view similarities between the students’ submissions. For instance, if three students submit the same work, you can spot the similarity quickly.
  7. Here is an example response dashboard for a writing assignment.
Create an Assignment