A host of studies have shown that feedback is one of the most important elements of learning (e.g., Hattie, 2009; Wiggins, 2012). These studies also show that students are generally starved for good feedback. Their instructors focus on grades instead, having learned to mentally subtract points for errors as they go through students’ work and justify those deductions with brief comments such as “vague” and “grammar.” But these comments are not helpful to students. They lack detail about the problem and the solution.
