How Students Get the Most Out of Your Online Course

It doesn’t matter who you are. Whether you’re a high schooler in math class, secretary at a law office, football player in the NFL, or CEO of a company. Whether you’re high or low in the chain of command, you’re not above feedback. It stimulates improvement, keeps people humble, builds up confidence and can inspire.

Feedback is such an important part any type of educational process.

The case with many online courses

Online course platforms often lack because they are very one-sided.

Information is presented, and it’s the students’ job to understand and retain the information. Once one task is complete, you simply click to the next one.

There’s no give and take, no pat on the back, no one wanting your opinion, no one asking if you really understood the information. You just work, and work, and work some more. Then suddenly, the course is complete.

Did you learn anything? Is that even an enjoyable, effective learning experience?

‍

What is the Feedback Loop?

The Feedback Loop is the process of feedback that aims to propel learning along. It’s a give and take process that involves two-sides and instigates change.

Closing the loop involves the completion of the feedback process, in which the student knows what they need to improve upon and is ready to move forward.

Why is closing the loop is so important?

Without closing the loop, students are left hanging.

If it is not closed, students don’t receive that extra motivation. They still desire recognition and praise for their task, and may be in need of advice on how to improve their performance.

Closing the feedback loop increases the chance of course completion and learning success.

Once the loop is closed and feedback is given, it’s like the student just got their battery charged. They know what they need to do, feel good about what they did well, and are determined to keep moving.

‍

Don’t worry, myQuest is able to close the loop

• Follow Up Question Feature: Directly after completing each mission, myQuest users are hit with a customized question by the mentor. This question can do a number of things such as ask users to reflect on their task, encourage post to the community, or gives them support/confidence, etc.
• This feature can allow students to feel good on a job well done, make them evaluate their own performance, tell them what to focus on, and provide them with the support they need moving forward.
• When answering the follow up question, you can either post to the community, or your private journal. If posting to your own journal, your mentor will be able to see and respond to your answers. If posting to the community, you can receive responses from the public.
• Smart Automated Communication: With this AI installment, students can Interact with their mentors very effectively by sending them automated messages and push notifications based on their progress. It’s the closest you can get to providing a 1-1 coaching experience to thousands of people.
• This feature engages students and interacts with them depending on where they are in the course, allowing students to feel important and motivated.

If you’re not using myQuest, either hop on board or find a way to utilize the feedback loop in your own course!