“Supervised learning uses guidance and feedback from the teacher to keep the learner on track. However, if the learning is situated in a meaningful context with a meaningful goal in view, the learner should be able to cope with less teacher direction and rely solely on the direct feedback from the environment on their actions.”
Laurillard, 2012, p. 55
In the context of learning, it is important to distinguish two types of feedback, extrinsic and intrinsic. Both types are formative and influence the learner's actions but differ in their nature and sources.
Extrinsic feedback comes from the environment or the teacher. It takes the form of evaluative comments or guidance provided by the teacher to help the learner enhance their actions in line with the intended goal.
Digital learning content can include feedback that is programmed based on learner actions and outcomes. For example, a video can be enriched with interactive questions that pop up at some point, asking learners to check if they have understood what we presented so far. Or a quiz could provide explanations at the end of a submission to clarify why a specific answer is wrong. This type of feedback gives learners an expert view of content.
Intrinsic feedback, on the other hand, is inherent to the learner's actions and arises naturally as a consequence of those actions in relation to the intended goal. It allows learners to independently assess and improve their actions without the need for teacher intervention. Intrinsic feedback is valuable because it enables learners to progress towards their goals independently, without relying on constant teacher guidance or supervision.
Intrinsic feedback is more common, as it is often based on continuous interaction with the environment around us. For example, when we try to learn from a tutorial how to use a specific software application, we can check if what happens on the screen corresponds to what we wanted to do. It is the type of feedback that we use to align our performance with a desired result.
As we have discussed in Module 1, Understanding by Design requires teachers to think about evaluation strategies and tools from the start of the design process, right after defining the learning objectives and right before designing and building learning content.
Feedback, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is part of the assessment process. It affects the results of learning and can be embedded in learning content, so it acts as some sort of “connector” between stage 2 and stage 3 of UbD theory.
According to Hattie and Timperley (2007), feedback should provide answers to three questions: where am I going? How am I going? Where to next? These questions can be of help in deciding where and how to introduce feedback mechanics in a course through the use of digital technology.
Feedback can be extrinsic (coming from the teacher or the environment) or intrinsic (a consequence of actions performed by the learner)
Proper feedback should allow to determine:
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a design science. Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology. Routledge.