Authors

  1. Soto, Sandra PhD, MPH, BSN
  2. Mittal, Manisha MA, MEd

Article Content

Students require thoughtful feedback on written assignments to learn how to craft written deliverables and build their skills as nurse leaders. However, providing critical feedback can be time consuming for educators and less effective when text is the only means of communication. An alternative approach is video feedback where the educator uses videoconferencing software to record themselves reading, editing, and commenting on the assignment aloud while displaying (screencasting) the student's work. The student can hear why the educator included a comma, made a different word choice, and changed the structure of a sentence, as well as understand why a paragraph did not come together to make the intended point. This feedback method is useful for helping international students who are writing in a non-native language better understand the rationale for the grammatical edits. For native language students, it is all too easy to "accept all changes" and miss problematic writing patterns (eg, a brief verbal explanation of when to put the apostrophe after the "s" in "patients" goes a long way). Furthermore, verbal explanations for why the content is lacking or inconsistent help deliver the educator's message quicker and with more clarity than written explanations alone. Finally, verbal feedback allows educators to engage with students by establishing the educator's presence, an valuable strategy in hybrid and online courses where interaction with the educator is limited.