Ways to give formative feedback in Google Workspace for Education Follow

In this article:

Comments

Suggesting mode (Google Docs only)

Version history

Live commenting

Google Forms

Formative feedback is a powerful instructional strategy that moves students toward achieving their academic goals. Google Workspace for Education has features and tools that help you give students the valuable formative feedback they need to reach their goals. You can also quickly access students’ Google Drive files within Hāpara Teacher Dashboard to streamline the formative feedback process even further.

Google Workspace for Education has several features within Google Docs, Slides, Sheets or Drawings that allow you to provide formative feedback to students. Google Forms is also a tool that works well for demonstrating the feedback process. You can quickly access students’ Google Drive files in Hāpara Teacher Dashboard, allowing you to consistently give formative feedback directly from one hub. 

Try these Google Workspace for Education features as you implement formative feedback throughout the learning process.

Comments

Comments are virtual “red pen” markups that you can add in the margins of student work. They can be added to any part of the Google Docs, Slides, Sheets or Drawings that students are working on.

To add a comment in a file:

1. Highlight the text you want to comment on.
2. Click Insert at the top left-hand side of your screen.
3. Select Comment at the bottom of the menu.
4. Type in your feedback
5. Click the blue Comment button.

Note: To send the student an instant email notification with the comment, just type a + sign and then start typing the student’s email.

Suggesting mode (Google Docs only)

Suggesting mode allows you to make changes to the text in a Google Doc so that students can see exactly how you’ve edited their work. The changes are noted in green so students can clearly see the suggestions or edits.

To use Suggesting mode:

1. Click on the pencil icon in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Select Suggesting.
3. Make the changes to the Doc where you want (the changes will show up in green).

Version history

The version history of the file shows you all the changes a student has made to a file since it was created. This helps you diagnose the challenges students are facing or positive strides they have made in reaching their goals. You can then base your feedback on what you see in the version history. You can also use it to see who is (and who is not) contributing to a group assignment.

To see the version history:

1. Click File on the top left-hand side of the screen.
2. Select Version history > See version history.
3. Click on any of the version dates on the right to expand and view the different versions.

Live commenting

Live commenting is available when you and a student are working in a file at the same time. It’s basically an instant messaging feature that allows you to give feedback and allows the student to immediately respond. 

To use live commenting:

At the top right, click the Chat icon to start live commenting. 

Note: This feature won't be available if you're the only one in the file.

Google Forms

Google Forms are Google’s online survey creation tool. You can create a Form to ask students for feedback. This makes feedback a classroom norm so that students can see it as constructive. It also gives you an instructional opportunity to review with students what effective, helpful feedback looks like.