Many studies on feedback communication have focussed around feedback provided to the messenger by the audience. This article is focussed on the feedback provided by the messenger, after the audience has responded to the original message. This will be applied to the "audience" of learners participating in eLearning courses through learning management systems in particular.

Imagine this scenario: Through using an online banking application, you deposit R10 000 into someone else's account. You click the Submit or Pay now Tab and you are directed back to the home page. What happened? Was the transfer successfully processed? Was it declined? Do you need to try again? How will you receive the proof of payment if it was in fact successful? If it was me, I would start panicking, having no idea what happened and no clue as to what to do next.

The same panic, confusion and frustration as described above occurs when an eLearning student does not receive feedback. The participation of the learner should be managed and monitored, and most importantly, this should be communicated back to provide supportive guidance and create in the learner a sense of acknowledgement.

Automated feedback

In my experience of participating in an online course through Coursera.com, I was first made aware of how important feedback is when I receive a simple bright green tick next to the Video Lectures that I have completed watching. In the delivery of online courses, a learning management system should be set up in such a way as to communicate the learner's progress through the course while facilitators are to communicate the standard of the progress back to the student in the form of appraisal, constructive criticisms, advice and suggestions.

The Coursera.com LMS is set to send me a small "Thank you!" message the moment I tick the box to accept the terms and conditions. Systematic feedback has the power to make eLearners feel as if their every action is noted, and hence encourages in them an emotional and cognitive experience of task completion.

Responding to comments and questions

I have noted that, in an attempt to continually provide effective support, from the first week, Coursera.com has kept a close eye on student stumbling blocks and have provided assistance accordingly.

Comments and queries from learners should be captured via email and discussion forums. As a weekly rule, an administrator should send each learner an update providing answers to those most queried topics, putting major concerns to rest, clarify areas of major confusion and acknowledge and consider suggestions offered by students to better the course.This would work like a newsletter, except it will contain information tailored around learner input and be seriously relevant to the students.

Student to Student evaluations and feedback

Feedback on assignments submitted is crucial. You need to receive a grade as well as comments stating where you have gone wrong etc. The LMS is able to mark and grade quizzes and exams, but not essays as such. For this, we have our fellow eLearners.

Students evaluate one another, having been supplied with assessment criteria provided by Coursera.com through two video lectures explaining evaluation and examples of such assessments. It is compulsory for you to do this and to do it properly, as you are graded on your evaluation of other's assignments just as you are graded on your own assignment. It is a social principle based on the principle of giving considerate feedback to others as you would expect from them.

Giving feedback to learners participating in an online course is as important as it is to have a cup holder for your steaming-hot-morning-traffic-take-away-coffee. Feedback encourages feelings of having direction, having clarity, being acknowledged, being supported. As a result, learners are motivated to proceed with diligence. In an online course like the one I am currently enrolled in, it is hard not to feel like "just a number" when 70 000 students are enrolled in the course alongside you. Feedback is the key to combat this assumption.

Sound Idea Digital specialises in Learning Management Systems and eLearning developments | soundidealearningmanagement.co.za
Carla van Straten is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital | Carla@soundidea.co.za