What sort of feedback does the student get? And, what type of information should I include in a feedback box?

Students get two types of feedback for any question, visual and verbal. First, students receive a visual cue because CALI Author allows you to set the border of the feedback box to:

Second, each box also has a unique symbol in the upper left hand corner (green check mark, red X, yellow question mark, and blue i). The symbol provides students with a second visual cue about their choice.

Popup boxes can also be set to these same colors.

Second, you can add an unlimited amount of text to a feedback box. Although if you're considering placing the full text of a case in a popup, CALI suggests you edit the case, simply because your edited decision will be easier for students to read. And, your edited version will make it easier for students to discern the point of the cases included in the lesson. Feedback boxes can also include images, or links to other pages in the lesson, other popups, or web sites. Thus, you can control the amount of instruction that takes place in a feedback box.

Before you make all your answers wrong, or everything a "maybe," here are a few things to consider. Most law courses have topics and concepts that are ambiguous at times, and it is important for students to understand that ambiguities exist. However, students become distressed in an interactive tutorial if they are only given choices that are wrong or "fuzzy." And, while they may pay attention to gray areas that are explained to them in a classroom, with an interactive tutorial they will walk away without completing the lesson if the frustration level gets to high. So, remember to give students a chance to be right too. If there is no right answer for a question, and all choices are yellow (scored wrong), please disable the scoring for that page (in authoring mode, select INFO tab/Scoring and follow the directions).

Feedback should do a few basic things. It should tell students whether their response is right, wrong, or a possible answer. Phrases that work well include a simple "yes," "no," or "that's possibly correct…. " Some authors prefer a more collegial tone or a "lighter" touch and use phrases such as "I agree" or "I disagree." The latter phrases have a number of benefits. First, phrases such as "I agree" or "I disagree" seem to make the student and the instructor partners in working through the material. Therefore, while the student is working with a computer, the student appreciates that there's a professor behind the material. Second, many authors believe the latter feedback is less harsh; a concern many instructors have in an interactive faceless environment, where students have more freedom that they have in the class, and where students can walk away from the tutorial at anytime.

Additionally, feedback should teach the student. Some students get the right answer right for the right reason, some students get the right answer for the wrong reason, and some students get the answer wrong. In each situation, the feedback is an opportunity to explain the concept or reaffirm what the student already knows. Sometimes, the feedback boxes for the right and wrong response are identical, except for the opening clause, and this is perfectly fine. Seldom do students see both the wrong and right feedback box. Thus, it's all right to repeat text. That's why authors often use the copy/paste feature in the feedback boxes. Authors can also use the Shared Response tab in many of the questions to add feedback that will appear in the responses for all the choices. Lastly, when writing your response, please don't put a critical bit of the analysis in just one response without considering whether all the students will see that response. If, for example, you require the student to get a question right before moving to the next question, you can put the key part of the analysis in the right response. However, CALI suggest that you don't put the same key piece of analysis in a single wrong response, as not every student may take that path through the lesson.

Faculty often asks, “What level of feedback explanation is adequate?” The answer is close to what sort of explanation you would hope to see for an exam answer discussing this point. Then add to this any additional information that will help the student follow your analysis and reasoning. Feedback can differ based on the difficulty of the question. For example, suppose a question asks students to select one of four choices. The feedback response for the right answer may just jump the student immediately to another page where the student is asked, “why do you think that’s the right choice?” The student can either select their reason from a list, or explain their choice in an essay. However, the student who gets this wrong may get a more detailed response – in effect this student is given what you anticipate the better student is giving to you on the next page. In fact, you can copy the feedback from this choice into the feedback for the “explain your reason” question.

In general, CALI views the response, or feedback, whether for a right or wrong choice, as a chance for faculty to teach and for students to learn. Feedback that conveys more than “you’re right – correct” - or “you’re wrong” is useful to students and is now considered standard in CALI lessons. You can repeat the feedback for all responses using the Shared Response tab in CALI Author. There’s a second benefit for providing detailed responses. For students that guess or get the right answer for the wrong reason, they have a chance to confirm their analysis. Comments from students about the existing lessons indicate that they prefer highly-detailed feedback and responses.

If you think students got the questions wrong and shouldn’t have if they’d been paying attention in the lesson to this point (such as, this material was covered in the previous question) you can use a hyperlink within the feedback to give the student the option to return to an earlier place in the lesson. And, jumping ahead a bit here in lesson construction, you can insert a ToolBar Button on this page [Info tab/Toolbar] that would allow the student to return to this page if they elect to follow the hyperlink taking them back in the lesson.