Giving effective online feedback to students is crucial to their learning process. Below are some best practices for online feedback, along with practical tips and tools to help save time when providing feedback to students through Canvas.
The goals to keep in mind when creating effective feedback are trust, connection, authenticity, and consistency. These goals help students build confidence in your course and understand how what they learn can support their future endeavors.
How can instructors encourage feedback literacy among students?
Here are some ways to encourage feedback literacy with students:
- Encourage students to focus on building skills, not just receiving a grade.
- Provide constructive feedback.
- Scaffold learning with smaller assignments that build toward a larger one.
- Use a respectful tone when giving feedback.
- Encourage goal setting.
Practical Design Strategies
Here are some design strategies you can implement in your course to make the most effective use of feedback:
- Create a feedback explanation page that outlines the goals of feedback and clarifies expectations for both students and instructors.
- Use Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) by clearly communicating the purpose of each assignment, the skills students will develop, and how their work will be evaluated.
Tools in Canvas
Canvas has built-in tools that can make providing effective feedback easier. The Rubrics tool in Canvas offers two methods of giving feedback: analytic and holistic. Analytic rubrics are more detailed, breaking down how a student did or did not earn points for each aspect of an assignment. Holistic rubrics evaluate the assignment as a whole and assign a single overall grade.
SpeedGrader is another tool within Canvas that supports effective feedback. It includes annotation features that allow instructors to write directly on a student’s submitted document, enabling students to review comments in context. SpeedGrader also includes a comment box on the side, which is an ideal place to provide overall or summary feedback on a submission. Additionally, instructors can use the built-in screen recording tool in SpeedGrader to record personalized video or audio feedback for a student’s submission.
Want to learn more? Check out the recording of Giving Effective Online Feedback, facilitated by Digital Learning Specialist James Butler.
Have any questions? Schedule a consultation with Clemson Online for help!
Upcoming Events
Workshop Wednesday: Increasing Student Motivation in Online Courses
Wednesday, March 4th, 1:30-2:30 PM
Join this training to learn more about increasing motivation and engagement in online courses.
Whatever modality you teach in, this training will cover practical tools, tips, and best practices for increasing motivation through online tools. When registering, please include any questions you have about this training topic.
Register here for Increasing Student Motivation.
Facilitated by Dara Abimbade, PhD, Digital Learning Strategist.
Introduction to Digital Accessibility
Monday, March 9th, 1-2 PM
This training will introduce you to digital accessibility and discuss the significance of ensuring all courses are accessible.
This training is part of our Canvas Accessibility Week training series. Register here for Canvas Accessibility Week sessions. When registering, please include any questions you have about this training topic.
Facilitated by Leslie Fuller, PhD, Digital Learning Strategist.
All sessions will be held over Zoom. After registering, you will receive the Zoom link. All registrants will be sent a copy of the recorded training.
Clemson Online Spring 2026 Events Calendar
Review our Spring 2026 Events Calendar to see what Online Instruction Development opportunities await!
We have a robust lineup of topics and live training formats to support your use of Canvas and other e-learning tools. Topics cover demonstrations of using Kaltura, engaging your students, and workshops to get your Canvas site ready to teach!
All of our live training is recorded. Registrants will automatically receive a link to that day’s video after it has been processed.
Contact Millie Tullis with any questions regarding these sessions.
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