In last week’s blog post (Assessing Your Assessment Strategy), we discussed rubrics and how they can be utilized as part of your assessment strategy. Rubrics are certainly an important and valuable assessment tool. However, assessment can be delivered in other formats as well.

Providing verbal feedback can also play an important role in your overall assessment strategy.  Feedback can be delivered via a two-way conversation between the learner and instructor particularly in clinical settings. For feedback to be beneficial to the learner, it must be specific and focused on the behavior or performance observed. These conversations, if properly facilitated, can be very effective methods for assessing performance particularly in an active learning environment such as a clinical setting. Several resources are available to assist instructors in improving their skills related to providing feedback such as:

• Quick Teaching Tip: Feedback (Video available from the Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators)

• Twelve Tips for Giving Feedback Effectively in the Clinical Environment (Available from the Medical Teacher)

• Practical Guide for Clinical Educators (Available from Monash University)

How do you provide feedback to your students? What tips or suggestions can you share?

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