Give Feedback on Student Projects

Offering feedback that is demystifying, personal, and actionable encourages your students to continue learning.

 

Answering student questions can be a great way to boost engagement in your class. And posting feedback on projects can motivate your students to keep learning. Hear some tips regarding both engagement strategies from Top Teacher Ohn Mar Win and Gio Vescovi (artsygio) in this lesson from Teach on Skillshare: Plan, Publish, and Promote an Engaging Class.

The Project Gallery — which is located under the Projects & Resources tab in your class — includes all the projects students have completed and uploaded to your class. Actively reviewing projects and providing feedback is a great way to encourage students to share their work.

Just like your class, your feedback should be demystifying, personal, and actionable. Read on for some best practices for providing feedback that will help demonstrate your reputation as a great teacher on Skillshare.

Be Upbeat and Encouraging

One of the things that makes Skillshare special is its positive and supportive community. Be a part of that by using a friendly and positive tone in your written feedback. This helps students feel encouraged and appreciated for their work.

Provide Constructive Tips Where Needed

Upbeat encouragement is wonderful, but it alone doesn’t help a student know what they can do next to level up. Instead, give actionable feedback that a student can apply to their project right away. For instance, you could highlight a part of their project that could be tweaked or done a bit differently, and then explain how they can make the improvements you suggest.

Use any of the following prompts to help you write thoughtful and demystifying feedback — fill in the blanks with the elements of the student’s project and your own comments, as appropriate:
  • I feel you completed ____ really successfully because ____.
  • The ____ captured my attention first because ____.
  • I can see that ____ needs a little more attention. One approach you might consider is ____.

Show Off Your Own Work

To encourage students to share their projects, model that behavior yourself! We highly recommend that you submit your own version of the class project to the Project Gallery. If you’re also a student in other Skillshare classes, ensure your completed projects are visible on your teacher profile page to show your commitment to making and sharing work within the Skillshare community.

Prompt Students to Keep Iterating on Their Project

Not all projects need to be finished pieces. Encourage students to upload work-in-progress for your feedback, and let them know that you look forward to seeing their next iteration. Bonus: by putting less emphasis on submitting a polished project, your students may be less intimidated and more likely to upload sooner! Note that students may only upload one project at a time per class, so they'll need to edit their existing project to add iterations of their work.

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Examples of project feedback by Top Teachers Evgeniya & Dominic Righini-Brand (1) and Desdemona Dallas (2). These teachers go the extra mile and highlight what’s really working in each student’s project, and also give suggestions for improvement.