Improve Student Motivation with Instant Learning Feedback

The delivery of learning feedback is associated with improved levels of student performance, satisfaction, and motivation.¹ The timeliness of that feedback can also positively improve these outcomes, particularly in online courses wherein student learning is often self-regulated and self-motivated.²

Assessing the significance of timely feedback in online learning, we highlight the ways in which hints, linked explanations, and fully-worked solutions with Summatic can inspire students with the step-by-step instruction to confidently proceed with a proven learning process.

The Importance of Timely Learning Feedback

Research shows that students not only prefer feedback while learning but that they prefer to have that feedback as promptly as possible.³ Studies show a positive relation between instantaneous feedback and student achievement in the STEM subjects, as corrected mistakes can direct students towards the right path for minimizing repeated mistakes.⁴

With online learning, the timeliness and delivery of this feedback becomes essential for facilitating the learning process as students are often separated from instructors while working through problems. Advances in online learning however have accounted for this by delivering faster, more nuanced explanations and solutions to students on individual problems.

This has allowed students to assess the quality and pace of their work as they work, fostering a more independent learning process with directors built in to guide students along. Helping students along by correcting mistakes or affirming their progression and competency, instant feedback can engender feelings of autonomy and motivation.⁵

Anticipating Blockers with Hints

The creators of online assignments and assessments may anticipate blockers which students may commonly encounter when working through a given topic or question by providing hints. This online feature allows students who may feel stuck to access the relevant information necessary to help them think through solutions.

On the Summatic platform, as shown above, students can select the ‘Hint’ button on a given question to receive advice on how to approach a problem. This function helps students to unblock themselves by helping them to recall a key step to overcome a certain blocker and to keep progressing through a question attempt.

Guiding Students Step-by-Step Through Solutions

After submitting their attempts, students are also provided with step-by-step feedback with Summatic. This feedback walks students through each step of the solution process by providing the relevant equations and inputs to reach correct answers.

Learning with step-by-step feedback, students are not left in the dark when unable to answer a question correctly. The feature allows students to progress onto similar questions with new variants, whereby they can apply what they learned from their previous attempt and the accompanying feedback to successfully master a concept.

Linking Mistakes to Learning Materials

The Summatic platform can also link assignment questions to learning materials, so that when a student feel stuck even after receiving feedback, they can navigate to pages of our interactive textbook to read more about a concept or topic with visual guides designed to simplify the learning process.

This feature enables students to directly link areas of weakness or difficulty with the relevant teaching material, so that they can easily take in what they need when they need to proceed on with a given assignment or lesson with the confidence that they are prepared to tackle that concept again in the future.

Guiding Instructors Along Through Analytics

Feedback can be as essential for the teaching process as it is for the learning process. The quality and depth by which instructors can access the results of how students performing online determines their ability to take insights back into the classroom to tackle topics which students are specifically struggling with.

With Summatic, instructors also benefit from the features of our instant feedback. Student question attempts and performance are documented through our online mark book, helping instructors to easily identify common mistakes among cohorts and to easily access detailed performance analytics in real time on each student's progression through a given assignment or assessment, including their steps, mistakes and corrections.

A Proven Learning Process

At Summatic, we believe in providing students with an online learning experience that ensures the development of autonomy and motivation alongside mastery of subject knowledge. Our platform's instant feedback features are designed with this objective in mind through a proven learning process that directs students along a path of improvement and achievement with each question attempt.