As a trainer, I believe in providing feedback to my students. This lets both me, and the student, know if progress is being made in the course material. Feedback can come in many forms. It can be from projects, to quizzes, to question and answer periods with the student. Quick and relevant the feedback means that I can make changes to the course to brings students up to speed, or move them further than was initially planned.
However, it is also important for the instructor to receive feedback. This is another way to let an instructor know if they are covering material correctly, and therefore doing a good job. Instructor and course feedback allows both the teachers and school administrators gauge the effectiveness of the instructor and course.
This feedback is often welcomed by good instructors because it lets us know how we can improve. However, often feedback for instructors comes only on a semester or yearly basis, and in many cases is very limited in scope.
Bill Gates has seen this problem, and is working on ideas to allow instructors to have near real time feedback. Think of any element where you have people trying to excel. Whether it is playing a sport or a musical instrument – those who excel have a coach to help them improve. So why not teachers. A teacher excelling at their job, means better education for their students.
What are your thoughts on this type of system? Do you think this kind of feedback would have helped any of your instructors?
The Need for Feedback in Training was originally found on Access 2 Learn
