Post written by Dr. Sarah Shelton and Dr. Peggy Semingson
At UT Arlington, we believe early alerts (feedback in courses by the end of week three or four) are a critical prerequisite to offering meaningful and productive academic support to students, providing them with a sense for how well they’re doing as soon as possible and you with data on how well your course design is supporting course goals. In general, the first month of class is a critical time and letting students know how they’re doing sooner rather than later can make a big difference in whether or not they feel engaged, find a sense of belonging, and believe they can succeed. By giving students constructively critical feedback during the first weeks of a course, you:
- Help Students Make Sound Educational Decisions: Early feedback helps students adjust study habits, seek support, or decide whether to drop a course.
- Help the University Identify and Support At-risk Students: Timely interim grades enable the university to provide targeted support to at-risk students.
- Inform Your Teaching: Early insight into student performance allows you to adjust your teaching for better learning outcomes.
- Foster a Culture that Values Inquiry and Dialogue: Feedback shows you care about students’ growth and encourages academic dialogue.
But giving students early feedback does involve some additional preparation time and effort as you rethink how you evaluate your students. To do this successfully try to:
- Develop short but meaningful evaluation tasks.
- Schedule short periods of class time to allow students to respond.
- Review, record, and return students’ work in a timely fashion.
- Take time to reflect upon what you’re learning about your students.
- Adjust as you see fit.
Begin by designing low-stakes assignments graded quickly (24-48 hours, ideally) to promote student engagement and build confidence early in the semester. This will also help with gathering grades for the four-week progress report. Below are some ideas that can help you gather early data on student performance, build rapport, and engage learners without overwhelming your grading load. Many can be adapted for large classes and graded on a simple completion scale.
Syllabus & Course Familiarity
Syllabus Scavenger Hunt
Ask students to find key information in the syllabus (e.g., policies, due dates) and share it. Ensures they’ve read it and know where to locate important details.
“About Me” Pre-Course Survey
Use a short Canvas or Microsoft Forms survey to learn about students’ backgrounds, interests, and prior experience with the subject. Helps you tailor examples and build rapport.
Early Understanding, Reflection, and Content Checks
Class Summary Statements
At the end of class, have students write a two-minute summary of the day’s main points, or summarize the previous meeting’s main points at the start. For large classes, use:
- Canvas Discussion Board/Quiz: Students submit summaries online.
- SpeedGrader Assignment: Upload summaries with a 3–4 point rubric.
- Survey/Poll: Ungraded Canvas survey with one open-ended summary question.
“Muddiest Point” Cards
Students jot down the concept they found most confusing. Review responses to guide next class; grade for submission only.
Concept Mapping
Students create a simple visual map linking key terms from the first lecture or reading. Submit a paper or digital version; grade for completion.
Quick Poll + Debrief
Pose one or two conceptual questions via Canvas or polling app. Discuss results live; award participation credit.
Sorting or Categorizing Task
Give examples, problems, or images for students to group into categories or sequences. Submit as a quick poll or photo.
Minute Demonstration or Problem-Solving
Have students solve one problem, label a diagram, or interpret a chart in class. Collect for completion credit.
The Evolving Study Guide
Have students submit two potential exam questions after each class to build a collaborative course study guide. Rate each for quality (0–3 scale) and consider using strong questions on actual exams. (Collect via Canvas discussion board, shared doc, or wiki.)
The Five-Minute “Microtheme”
Ask students to write a short in-class essay (one paragraph on a 5×8 card or single page) in response to a prompt. Grade quickly with a simple rubric or point scale. (For larger classes, use SpeedGrader in Canvas or collect only from a rotating sample of students each time.)
Group & Community-Building Activities
Peer Interview & Introduction (Pairs/Small Groups)
Students interview a partner or group members, then introduce them to the class (or post in a discussion board).
Group Brainstorm Board
Small groups brainstorm examples or applications of a concept on a shared online whiteboard or large paper. Submit a link or photo for completion credit.
More Multimodal Options
Video Reflection or Verbal Processing
Have students use Canvas’s media/record tool (or their phones) to submit a short 1–2 minute video or audio reflection on what they learned, how they approached an assignment, or how they’d explain a concept to someone else. Grade for completion or use a simple 3–4 point scale. (In larger classes, rotate who submits each week.)
Photo-Based Process Log
Ask students to take a photo of a physical or digital work-in-progress—such as notes, a diagram, a whiteboard sketch—and write 1–2 sentences explaining their process. Submit as an image + caption in Canvas.
Concept or Process Infographic
Students create a simple visual (using Canva, Google Slides, or even hand-drawn and photographed) that explains a key idea or process from the week. Grade for clarity and completeness.
Audio “Mini-Podcast”
Have students record a 1–2 minute audio segment where they summarize a reading, explain a concept, or interview a peer. They can submit as an audio file through Canvas.
Slide Deck Snapshot
Students create 2–3 slides illustrating the main takeaways from a reading or class discussion (images + key words). Upload as a PDF or PowerPoint file in Canvas.
Caption This!
Provide an image, chart, or figure from the week’s materials and have students create a one-sentence “caption” that accurately describes or interprets it. Collect via discussion board for quick viewing.
Collaborative Video Explainer
In small groups, students create a 1–3 minute video explaining a concept from class, using simple visuals, demonstrations, or examples. They can record on phones or via Zoom and upload to Canvas. Grade for clarity and teamwork, not production quality.
Returning Feedback Quickly
If the point is to get students feedback in the first weeks, what we design has to be sustainable for our unique workloads and class sizes. How to provide early feedback is completely up to you. The key is to keep the costs low while still providing the attendant benefits. Here are some things to consider to help maximize the return for students while keeping the labor sustainable for you:
- If you want a fast way to measure performance, develop a quick grading scale like 0–3, where 0 indicates no submission, 1 reflects minimal or incomplete work, 2 shows basic competence with some errors, and 3 demonstrates strong understanding and complete work.
- If the activity is more about engaging and going through the process, use the Complete/Incomplete option in Canvas to track that participation.
- If you’re worried that smaller assignments could throw off your grade weights, check the “Do not count this assignment towards the final grade” box in Canvas. You can still mark them complete or incomplete, use a rubric or scale to indicate feedback, or leave a few quick comments for feedback without it being calculated in the final grade.
- If you’re more concerned about giving specific feedback for revision or growth but don’t have the time to give in-depth comments for every assignment or student, use AI like Copilot to help you write rubrics with more detailed feedback built into them.
Digital Resources for Low-Stakes Assignments
You don’t have to start from scratch or design these low-stakes assignments without support. Try out the below digital tools, all integrated into Canvas, to help you spark ideas and create the assignments themselves.
Perusall is a social annotation tool already available to us in Canvas. It includes the option to allow Perusall to grade students’ annotation work based on factors like quality of comments, time in the document, keystrokes, etc. For a low-stakes option, consider having students annotate a reading, video, or podcast before a class where they need that content for the lecture or activity. See our Vendor-led demo and our interview with Dr. Katie Welch for more info and ideas.
Khanmigo is an AI-powered learning companion developed by Khan Academy that supports student learning and enhances classroom instruction. It can help you quickly create low-stakes assignments like short practice quizzes, guided problem-solving sets, writing prompts with automated feedback, scaffolded discussion questions, exit tickets and more. See our demo and info session with CDE’s Melissa Roach and Joseph Rutledge for more info and ideas.
DesignPlus is a suite of tools in Canvas that helps instructors create visually engaging, well-organized course content with minimal effort. Part of that design can integrate low-stakes assignments (like short self-check quizzes with immediate feedback, simple reflection journals, or visually guided problem sets that walk students through a process step-by-step) directly into content. See our session with CDE’s Jess Kahlow for more info and ideas.
Inspire for Faculty (click here) allows you to see a heat map of student engagement as well as tips for email “nudges” to help students get on track.
Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear from you! Let’s share ideas here and keep the conversation going to inspire and support each other. How are you planning to get feedback to your students early in the semester and/or incorporate low-stakes assignments/activities into your course?