Feedback Forms

Feedback Forms enable you to define, for yourself or others who receive your shared Library, specific options for content that can be inserted anywhere AP supports or copied to your clipboard to paste anywhere else. They are an ideal fit for creating marking guides, rubrics, adding variety to how you praise students, or quickly highlighting mistakes in following style guidelines.

To use Feedback Forms, simply create a new AP Comment, or edit an existing one, using the patterns detailed below. Then, when you choose that Comment in AP, you’ll get a pop-up window where you can easily check off specific items, creating personalized, detailed content for a specific learner.

Freeform Text

To prompt writing a custom comment, enclose some text in double brackets. For example, [[Student name]] will create a text area that will display “Student name” in light text and prompt you to fill in the student’s name.

(Click to enlarge) This marking guide uses text areas to quickly customize feedback to include the student’s name, grade, assignment type and details. 

Selectable Content Options

Inline

Inline content is created by enclosing the optional text with double parenthesis. For example, in the editor you could create this comment: “I recommend that for your next presentation you work on ((modulation, timing, outlining, slide design, advance preparation)).”

When you enter this comment, a dialog box will open allowing you to select which options you want to select for this particular student.

Content formatted with the inline style will automatically handle the logic of inserting the word “and” when you select multiple items. Regardless of which points you select, it will make sure to add an “and” before the final selected item.

Bulleted

Bulleted content can be created by placing [] and a space before the text you want to be optional to insert. This is particularly useful for creating lists of related content or rubrics. (See below for more details on how to create rubrics with Feedback Forms.) 

For example, this “Praise” comment allows you to choose (as few or many as you want) the specific points of praise you want to send your student. This type of content is a great way to make sure you’re always aware of the need to provide both positive and constructive feedback to your students.

Single Item

Single item content formatting is similar to bulleted, but it doesn’t add a bullet point before the inserted text. These can be created by wrapping the text in double curly braces. {{}} This is great for adding optional extra pieces to comments.  For example, to add a link to a reference article at the end of a comment, and then decide whether it is desirable to add it when you use the comment.

Rubrics

Rubrics allow you to define and select point value criteria for feedback form items that will automatically add up the rubric score. These forms allow you to insert rubrics into spaces that don’t normally support them, like Word Online comments. They also allow high levels of customization for a rubric where you can select specific points rather than just a general score without indicating the specific reason it was deserved. 

In the above Rubric with Word Online, note how sub-points can be used to give specific feedback, as can text areas where you can optionally freeform elaborate on scoring specifics. All of the scoring automatically added up and can be inserted into Word with formatting like bolding and bullet points.  

Insert Options

With a toggle switch, you can choose to insert only the selected items or all items on a Feedback Form, with the unselected items crossed out.

Keep Open

Feedback Forms can be left open after insertion, and you can clear their checked items using the “Refresh” button. This works great for going through a series of papers in Canvas SpeedGrader or sending emails where you need to make minor customizations to each message.

The same checklist is kept open when switching between assignments in SpeedGrader. 

Use Cases

Feedback Forms are a great way to create dynamic rubrics or marking guides. You can easily integrate the structure of a rubric with the specificity of freeform content, with minimal extra effort.

(Click to enlarge image.) The feedback form was set to only insert the content authored in the text area and the content that has been checked off. This has turned the generic rubric into a powerfully targeted piece of feedback.