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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289 Responses to “Overcoming 3 Challenges to Providing Feedback in the Virtual Classroom”
A common challenge I see, regardless of the level of training, is the discomfort in giving feedback. Learners often struggle with either starting off with negative feedback or being too soft and insincere. That’s why I’m appreciating the material on how to prepare and structure feedback sessions. Preparation seems to be key in making these sessions more engaging and successful.
During presentations, we usually give general feedback to the group when tasks are completed successfully. Individual feedback is provided if a learner requests it, either through a reaction icon or by submitting a question. I found the suggestions helpful for those who may feel unsure about their ability to give feedback. I’ve experienced that myself, and I think it often limits peer-to-peer feedback. I’ll work on applying the article’s recommendations to enhance this aspect during our presentations
We keep our virtual engagements small and leverage group discussions when tackling challenging topics such as awards, compensation, and performance management. Fortunately, these topics offer ample opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback during our sessions, but we also use private chat for one-on-one feedback when it needs to be more constructive. Whenever possible, I like to respond to group discussions with relevant praise.
One challenge I’ve faced is the difficulty or discomfort of providing feedback to other learners in the course, especially since we don’t really know each other. It feels awkward to critique someone you’ve never met or spoken to before. To overcome this, I’ve learned to focus solely on the content and presentation rather than the person delivering it.
Fairly new to my job. I strongly agree using interaction and feedback from one another will help us succeed. Using all our resources, private chat, polls or word clouds will benefit and allow us to succeed in a virtual world.
This article was very informative. Feedback isn’t a tool I use often in my training presentations. However, this article has given me methods to employ so that I could use it as a way to strengthen our trainees and their skills.
I appreciate the concept of learners providing peer-to-peer feedback. While it might seem challenging to implement in the course, having prepared questions and clear instructions on how to generate feedback can make it highly beneficial for both learners and instructors. This approach not only facilitates knowledge checks but also engages learners cognitively and physically.
At my organization, we strongly emphasize interaction, and we believe that when it is constant, it enhances the students’ experience and makes it more effective, which also promotes their growth and success. Thank you so much for this information!
I facilitate one class that requires peer-to-peer feedback. We give participants a form to use for this purpose and remind them to give ideas, not criticism. The participants also receive instructor feedback. I think they appreciate the various perspectives on their work. In another class, we do a role-play at the end to show how they have learned to communicate more effectively with people of opposite communication ‘types’. The feedback comes from the opposite type, letting them know what they liked, how effective their choices were, and how they could have been better. Since this feedback is coming from ‘an expert’ of that type, it is seen as valid.
Feedback is important and challenging in virtual classrooms (VC). As a technical trainer, we have to watch the screens of all our participants to ensure they are able to follow along and not get lost in the platform we are training on. Since not everyone is tech-savvy, I rely heavily on private chat to verbalize feedback and screen control to help people figure out where they need to be when they get lost in the program. I don’t like calling out people (although some call themselves out), which is why I rely on private chat. Also, since I am conducting technical training, peer-to-peer interaction is not really an option in the VC as participants can’t see each other’s screens. However, when we are live and in-person, peer-to-peer interaction happens naturally as attendees sit next to each other and ask their neighbors for help.