PWL half-day instructional feedback, assessment event set for Oct. 12

Feedback is at the heart of the faculty-student relationship. PWL Instructors, teaching assistants and staff interested in providing effective feedback and assessment of student learning are invited to participate in a virtual half-day event, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 12, hosted by Innovative Learning.

Four virtual sessions focus on different aspects of providing high-quality, timely feedback to students and culminate in a keynote panel of award-winning faculty from across the university discussing their best practices and techniques for working with students. The special event is taking place during Fall Break to allow as many people to attend as possible. Participants may attend some or all of the WebEx sessions by signing up using this single registration link.

The detailed agenda includes:

9-9:30 a.m. The Purpose of Feedback

The Center for Instructional Excellence will present an introductory session on the value of high-quality feedback. The session will focus on feedback’s role in relation to self-determination theory and show how it can help students with autonomy, competence, and relatedness. After the session, attendees should be able to:

  • Identify ways that well-structured feedback can contribute toward supporting learners’ three basic psychological needs.
  • Develop strategies for enhancing their feedback practices.

9:45-10:45 a.m. Selecting the Right Tool for Assessment Activities

Purdue supports a wide variety of assessment tools that work with Brightspace. In this session, members of the Consulting and Training team will provide a brief overview of the purpose of assessment versus feedback, a comparison between formative and summative assessment activities, and introduce a variety of tools faculty can use to provide feedback and assess student work. Tools covered will include Brightspace Quizzes, Circuit, Hotseat, iClickers, Gradescope and Variate. After the session, attendees should be able to:

  • Know the differences between summative and formative assessment, and their relationship to feedback.
  • Understand how Purdue-provided tools can assist with feedback and assessment.

11 a.m.-12 p.m. (noon) Building a Better Rubric

In this session, members of the Course Production and Consulting and Training team will demonstrate how using rubrics in Brightspace can improve both the quality and speed of feedback. Presenters will introduce faculty to the rubrics tool in Brightspace, explore best practices for building effective rubrics, and share samples of highly effective rubrics created by our instructional designers. After the session, attendees should be able to:

  • Know how to build and deploy rubrics in Brightspace.
  • Understand the principles of designing a rubric.

12-12:30 p.m. Drop-in Help Session

Join us during a short break to ask follow-up questions of the presenters from the morning’s session. This will be an open, extra Q&A during the lunch break.

12:30-1:30 p.m. Keynote Faculty panel

Join experienced, award-winning faculty from across the university as they discuss some of their best practices and techniques for giving students high-quality and timely feedback. This session will be moderated by Clarence Maybee, professor and W. Wayne Booker chair in Information Literacy. Each panelist will share a short presentation, followed by time for an open Q&A session. Panelists include:

  • Edward Berger, associate vice provost for Learning Innovation and director of the Innovation Hub
  • Wanju Huang, clinical assistant professor, Learning Design and Technology
  • Natasha Watkins, clinical associate professor, HDFS
  • Bradley Dilger, associate professor, English
  • Lindsay Hamm – continuing lecturer, Sociology
  • Orla Hart – clinical assistant professor, Biochemistry

All sessions will be recorded and captioned for distribution after the event. Additional monthly drop-in sessions and workshops for October may be found on the training calendar.

Innovative Learning is Purdue West Lafayette’s hub approach to connect instructors to the resources they need to engage students, develop courses in any instructional modality, and enhance learning across the University. Members include the Center for Instructional Excellence, Libraries and the School of Information Studies, Purdue Online and Teaching and Learning Technologies. To learn more, visit www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning or email InnovativeLearningTeam@purdue.edu.

Purdue Fort Wayne faculty and staff who are interested in similar topics, can reach out to CELT, celt@pfw.edu, to discuss upcoming workshops, specialized workshops, one-on-one course and learning activity development sessions, and certificate opportunities.

Purdue Northwest faculty and staff may direct teaching-related questions to the Center for Faculty Excellence at cfe@pnw.edu, 219-989-8328, or CFE’s website. Technical support questions should be directed to The Office of Instructional Technology by email oit@pnw.edu or OIT’s website or through their Virtual Help Desk.

Purdue Global faculty may direct teaching-related questions to askctl@purdueglobal.edu. Technical support questions should be directed to TechSupport@purdueglobal.edu or 866-522-7747 (toll-free).