Feedback loops

Feedback loops refer to the ongoing circular relationship in which a student produces an artefact or performs a task, teaching staff provides constructive feedback and the student then applies this input in an effort to improve their performance and skills.

What is a feedback loop?

In simple terms, a feedback loop describes the cyclical back and forth between student work and constructive input from their teaching staff (and the consequent application of that input in the next piece of work).

Ideally the feedback loop relationship should be continuous beginning with the subject’s first task through to the final summative assessment. This affords students the chance to apply their teaching staff’s constructive input and re-iterate on their work throughout the semester while continually improving and receiving staff input. This doesn’t mean necessarily that students should be working on one project from the beginning of semester until the end, but rather that they have the opportunity to re-apply skills continually in different assessment tasks that are progressive and linked (otherwise known as scaffolding assessments).

Within the feedback loop system, the teaching staff input component can be divided into two categories:

  • Feed-forward – constructive, future-focused commentary and advice e.g. task instructions, marking rubrics, in-task guidance and exemplars.
  • Feedback – constructive critique given on student’s work or performance.

Both of these aspects are crucial to establish an effective feedback loop that will benefit learning.

Why is it useful?

Benefits for students

  • Leads to better academic performance.
  • Models how to self-assess and understand the criteria for success, fostering independence in learning.
  • Encourages students to think critically through analysing their feedback i.e. guiding them to reflect on their processes and outcomes.
  • Boosts students' self-esteem and confidence (in the case of positive feedback), encouraging them to tackle more challenging tasks.
  • Maintains their engagement with the learning process. When students see that their work is acknowledged and can identify progress, they are more likely to stay engaged and motivated.

Benefits for educators

  • Fosters trust and rapport between educators and students. When educators maintain open lines of communication, students feel valued and respected, contributing to a positive classroom culture.
  • Assists with identifying students who are struggling early on, allowing for timely interventions and support before issues escalate.
  • Provides educators the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to improving student outcomes, fostering a culture of accountability in the educational setting.
  • Allows educators to recognise and address the varied learning needs of their students, leading to more inclusive and equitable teaching practices.
  • Improves assessment methods in the long term. Educators can review feedback to develop assessments that provide clearer insights into student learning and progress, leading to more effective instructional adjustments.

Challenges with using feedback loops

Alongside many benefits of using feedback loops, there are also a number of challenges:

  • Feedback practices require pre-planning and forethought. This includes creating meaningful rubrics, clear task instructions, assessment and marking planning and consideration of level of feedback and how it will prepare students for consequent assessment.
  • Large cohorts: with high student numbers it’s not often possible to deliver individualised and highly detailed feedback to each student on all tasks. Large cohorts may require approaches including peer review tasks for formative assessment, larger teaching teams and moderation strategies.
  • Teaching staff workload: students benefit from detailed feedback, but providing feedback takes time and effort on the part of teaching staff.
  • Effective feedback needs to be clear, focused on strategies for improvement and timely otherwise students are less likely to receive the full benefit.
  • Feedback should be balanced i.e. not solely focussing on errors, but successes as well.
  • Feedback loops require a mechanism for students to query the feedback to clarify their understanding and ask additional questions.

How do I implement it?

Preparatory guidance

When setting up the assessment task expectations and instructions, some examples of feed-forward ideas could include:

  • Exemplars – provide sample essays/reports/presentations, which model the expected assessment artefact that students should produce
  • Rubrics – design analytic rubrics with appropriate marking criteria that align to learning outcomes and have clear level descriptors to describe the performance that is expected
  • Discussion – incorporate opportunities for discussions (online discussion, tutorial discussions, or facilitate peer groups/tasks) that focus on understanding marking criteria and task instructions.

In-task guidance

When scaffolding learning activities towards preparation for assessment (i.e. when structuring tasks designed to feed into the subsequent tasks to develop competencies incrementally – see also  scaffolding assignments), some examples of feed-forward and feedback ideas could include:

  • Formative assessments – incorporate low-stakes tasks that provide opportunities for practice and improvement before summative assessments.
  • Self-review activities – include knowledge checking quizzes and encourage students to reflect on their own work and identify areas for improvement.
  • Peer review – facilitate peer feedback sessions, helping students develop critical evaluation skills.

Performance feedback

After students have submitted work for assessment, some examples of feedback ideas could include:

  • Constructive feedback – provide clear, actionable guidance that students can readily apply to their work
  • Multimodal: video or audio feedback – utilise multimedia formats to deliver more personalised and engaging feed-forward
  • Discussion – encourage dialogue between teaching staff and students to clarify expectations and strategies
  • Timing – ensure timely delivery of feedback, allowing students to make meaningful improvements.

Supporting technologies

  • LMS Assignments allows you to publish detailed descriptions, assessment criteria, task instructions, due dates and weighting in your subject’s LMS site.
  • LMS Rubrics are digital rubrics included on the relevant LMS Assignment page for students to access (and later for instructors to mark and provide feedback via Speedgrader).
  • LMS Discussions are LMS pages/boards specifically for discussing the assessment tasks. Include clear discussion prompts and instructions and direct your students to use it to discuss the assessment. Be sure to monitor and respond to student queries.
  • LMS Quizzes is a function on the LMS that were you can create knowledge checking quizzes.
  • FeedbackFruits makes it easy to set up a clear review structure aligned with assessment criteria, and to support students in giving criteria-based and actionable feedback as well as set up peer review activities, which have an interface for both giving and receiving feedback.
  • LMS Speedgrader use the LMS’s Speedgrader to record feedback in the marking rubric in form of text comments, but also using the video record function to include audio and even screen recorded feedback for students.
  • Turnitin Feedback Studio allows you to check for plagiarism with the software’s similarity reports, but also allows you to provide feedback by using drag-and-drop comments, leaving voice comments, and filling in pre-planned rubric items.
  • Assessment literacy tool. The assessment literacy tool can be used to expand student understanding of assessment criteria.

Resources

Requesting support

If you require assistance in implementing feedback loops in your subject, please lodge a request for support with Teaching and Learning Innovation.

This page was last updated on 17 Apr 2026.

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