Do your students find your feedback helpful? What are the types of feedback that students are most apt to respond to?

Turnitin recently conducted a survey of 1,000 students to gather insights into how instructor feedback impacts the development of student writing. Specifically, the survey sought to uncover what students value most in terms of instructor feedback and how the timing of feedback affects the development of their writing skills.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Despite high rates of electronic submission, students do not report receiving electronic feedback at the same rate.
• Students find feedback on "thesis/development" the most valuable, but report receiving more feedback on grammar/mechanics and composition/structure.
• Though 67 percent of students reported receiving "general, overall comments" on their paper, less than half of those students rated that feedback as "very helpful."
• 45 percent of students rate voice/audio comments as helpful, but only 3 percent currently receive this type of feedback.
• Over 17 percent of students reported that their instructors would take more than 17 days to provide feedback on their papers.