In a typical training course, learners spend significant amounts of time completing skill-based activities and exercises. During those exercises, or upon completion of them, each learner should receive feedback on their performance. In a traditional instructor-led course, the feedback process is fairly straight-forward. In virtual training, however, the process of giving and receiving quality feedback might pose a few challenges.
Having delivered virtual training for a few years, I’ve identified three challenges to providing feedback in the virtual classroom. Keep reading for some effective workarounds.
Challenge: Delivering personalized feedback
One-on-one or small group communication can be a bit more challenging in the virtual classroom. In most cases, the communication is openly broadcast to the entire group of learners. This could pose a challenge when attempting to deliver personalized feedback to an individual or small group.
Fortunately, most platforms have tools like private chat and breakout rooms. To keep the feedback personalized, have a private chat conversation with individual learners. Or, if you must give feedback to multiple groups, try using the breakout room function where only the members of each group are present.
As another option, divide the whiteboard into sections for each small group, or give multiple chat pods a try. I find these techniques also work well when you want your learners to deliver constructive feedback to each other.
Challenge: Encouraging trainees to provide constructive feedback
In both the traditional and virtual classroom setting, the most logical person to deliver feedback is the instructor. While this feedback approach does indeed work, it’s also a good idea to have variety. One option involves the learners giving feedback to each other—peer-to-peer feedback.
As with any training activity, this peer feedback approach must be set up and positioned the right way to be effective. In the virtual environment, the learners may be a bit shy because they’ve never seen or met their peers on the other end of the audio line. Or, some learners may feel they don’t have the appropriate skillset to give quality feedback.
Thankfully, there are workarounds to these issues. As virtual trainers, we should always be building rapport with our learners, both early on and continuously. The incorporation of icebreakers within your virtual course is a good way to do this. An icebreaker allows learners to get more comfortable with each other, increasing their comfort level delivering peer-to-peer feedback.
To remedy the perception of not having the appropriate skillset, always provide your learners with a performance checklist before they are tasked with offering feedback to their peers. This checklist can be part of their electronic manual or downloaded via the file share tool which is typically available on most virtual platforms. A well-designed checklist should provide a specific list of things to do, as well as a list of things to avoid, when delivering effective feedback.
Lastly, you should encourage peer feedback in a group setting within the virtual classroom. Facilitating the peer-to-peer feedback in this manner allows the trainer to oversee the process and provide additional feedback if necessary.
Challenge: Delivering carefully planned feedback
The way in which feedback is delivered in the virtual classroom requires more planning compared to the traditional classroom. The approach depends largely on both your timing constraints and the tools that will be used.
To address this particular challenge, you need to be proactive about how the feedback will be delivered, consider what tools will be required, and prepare effective supplemental materials well ahead of time (if they will be used).
Let’s say you are using a whiteboard for feedback purposes, and that whiteboard will be divided into sections. It’s a good best practice to prepare a slide beforehand so it can be displayed on the whiteboard. Or, if you plan to use multiple chat pods for peer feedback, it’s helpful to create a separate layout ahead of time that contains the number of chat pods required. Likewise, if a performance checklist is required for feedback purposes, it needs to be prepared in advance and included in the participant materials or loaded into a file share pod so it can be distributed to the learners when needed.
Time constraints in the virtual classroom often limit the spontaneous feedback that occurs more easily in the traditional classroom. To help with this, always provide a list of specific questions or criteria so the people providing feedback know exactly what they should be assessing. This list should be prepared in advance, complete with clear instructions and time limits given for each feedback opportunity.
Despite these few challenges, it is indeed possible to give and receive quality feedback in the virtual classroom. Just be sure to account for a few considerations like careful planning and maximizing the use of the tools within your virtual platform. When these things are considered, the feedback approach will be successful.
What challenges have you faced when providing feedback in the virtual classroom? What have you done to overcome those challenges?
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29 Responses to “Overcoming 3 Challenges to Providing Feedback in the Virtual Classroom”
This blog had great points and taking the Maximizing Engagement in the Virtual Classroom course has a opened up my eyes to the possibility of having a successful virtual classroom.
Great article!
As we move more and more into virtual delivery in our workplace, it’s great to have these guidelines to help us ensure the transition still offers an engaging, rewarding experience. I’m enjoying learning about the various ways I can work ahead (the layouts, the interactivity, etc.) to set the virtual classroom up for success.
Excellent – love all the tips and tricks to existing challenges.
The value of feedback cannot be underestimated. One of the greatest challenges I’ve faced is always remembering to provide feedback in a positive and constructive manner, so that the outcome is actionable.
Thought provoking article! The information in regard to having a performance checklist for peers to give effective feedback is a great idea for virtual and instructor led classroom settings.
I love this class! Understanding how quality feedback can be delivered in a virtual classroom is so valuable!
I love the idea of providing at checklist of items for the participants to use for feedback guidelines. It could be used in both the VC and the ILT.
Inviting learners in my classrooms to give peer feedback feels like an extremely risky prospect because I can’t control the content for accuracy or appropriateness. As a result, I usually just ignore it as a possible method. It’s really good hearing that with preparation and structure, the risks can be mitigated. That’s important because it allows us to impact learners in a novel way that’s not typically employed in online classrooms.
Nice ideas for transitioning to a more virtual world
What I learned from this blog is that careful preparation and how feedback is delivered are just as important as the message itself.
Great read!
Great read on the ways to improve feedback in the virtual classroom.
Very interesting. I’ve noticed in my last several online classes that my peers are very open to share positive feedback with each other, but haven’t seen any constructive criticism. Ensuring camadrie develops through icebreakers and activities could definitely raise the comfort level of the class to provide more constructive feedback. Having a standard resource or checklist is also a great idea. It may raise the confidence of the person providing the feedback, as they have a justification to point to. It can also help the receiver, as they can clearly see the feedback justified in the materials, causing them to trust it more and feeling less instinctively attacked.
Thanks for the tips.
I like the idea of providing a structured checklist for peer to peer feedback. This provides very targeted thing for peers to look for and they can easily say to their fellow peer if they did or did not hit all the marks. It provides a safer environment for the feedback, all parties know what to expect.
These are all great workarounds to use in the virtual classroom! Two items that I take away from this blog is to prepare as soon as possible and providing that checklist to your learners so that everyone has that opportunity to provide feedback.
Great article! The key take-away for me is planning and allowing more time to thoughtfully plan out feedback opportunities. Thank you!
Great information! Planning ahead and knowing your platform, and it’s limitations, are key.
I really like the idea of a feedback checklist.
This blog taught me the importance of providing feedback in the virtual classroom. By maximizing the tools at my disposal within my platform I will be able to give and receive quality feedback. Preparation and providing a checklist will be at the top of my mind. Great tips!
I had not considered the challenges of feedback in an online learning environment. I will be sure to plan ahead using the tools available in our platform. Thanks for the tips.
Great ideas on how to incorporate feedback within the virtual sessions instead of afterwards via email.
It is important to build that rapport with your attendees early on in the training to make them feel comfortable when you are asking them to give feedback or leave feedback. It seems like there are many challenges we as trainers face dealing with feedback that I have never really thought about before. Good read and thank you for the helpful insight.
Excellent tools! I’m planning ways to implement the tools when I begin virtual training.
I appreciate the tips Jeff provides. Very useful in the virtual environment. I wonder his perspective on mindset and tips on how to set learners up for success by offering tips on how to maintain an open, curious, and coach-able mindset when reacting to feedback in a virtual learning environment?
Providing feedback can often encourage participants to continue being fully engaged in the training.
I want to learn more tips on how to leverage the tools in our virtual platform (which is WebEx or Microsoft Teams) especially since each platform is different with their respective pluses and minuses.
Paul, WebEx Training Center has a number of tools you can utilize to get your participants interacting. My favorite is the Name Arrow Tool which is part of the annotation tools. Participants can claim some space on the slide or whiteboard and share their ideas using the text tool. WebEx also has a powerful polling option. You can even ask 2-part questions and access the data on the back end. In addition to using the chat feature, you can utilize the feedback icons to get quick input from all learners. I haven’t used Teams for training, but once you get to know the platform, you can get creative with the tools you have available.
There are 2 keys to effectively using the tools in whatever platform you’re using. First, show the participants how to use them and let them get a bit of practice. Then, during the session, always let them know how you want them to respond…chat, feedback icons, annotation tools, etc. This will set them up for success and they will be more likely to respond and interact. I hope these tips will get you started!
Introducing icebreakers to the training and workshop sessions seems to be one of the best ways to keep the group engaged from the beginning. Thanks for the ideas!
This blog helped me to consider even giving the audience an opportunity to provide feedback during the session. Great information.