About Feedback Manager

Background

Feedback Manager, inspired by Eric Mazur (Harvard), was developed in Moodle as part of the Quiz Module at UW-Madison. Programmer Bruce Barton, DoIT, and a development team headed by Professor Robert L. Jeanne (Entomology) worked with faculty/staff who teach in the Introductory Biology 151-152 course to create the tool to meet the objectives and needs of UW-Madison instructors. Feedback Manager was beta-tested in Spring 2009. The core development team included Lillian Tong, Amber Smith, David Hatfield, and Jenny Heyrman. Assistance was provided by Sue Weier (Learning Support Services) and Rachel Bain (Chemistry).

Funding

Funding was provided by a competitive grant from the Provost's Technology Enhanced Learning Program to the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with Robert L. Jeanne as primary investigator in 2008-2009. Continued development is provided by a Technology Enhanced Learning Continuation grant to the College of Engineering with Steven Cramer, Robert Jeanne, Robert Kohlhepp, Greg Moses, and Lillian Tong as primary investigators (2009-10). This continuation grant is a collaboration between the two colleges (each of which had developed materials and tools in Moodle in the 2008-2009 competition). The College of Engineering provided service and maintenance for all of the Moodle courses in the project.

Assessment

In 2009-10 the Feedback Manager team assessed the effectiveness of several labor-saving strategies (see Implementation). Additional tools were developed, including a drawing tool, based on feedback and requests from Introductory Biology faculty/staff and consultation with UW-Madison instructors in other courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. These UW-Madison instructors tested the new enhancements in the Feedback Manager and new implementation strategies. This interdisciplinary coordination of the tool-development provided opportunity for discussion of science education goals and strategies. Developers of this and other tools in Moodle at UW-Madison in different schools and colleges coordinate and share ideas and tools, such as the math editor, skill-builder, and case-base learning tools.

In addition, led by the College of Engineering, the collaborative continuation grant funded a coordinated dissemination of use of Moodle as a course management tool to courses in the College of Engineering, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and College of Letters and Science. This "surge" was facilitated by a team of skilled graduate and undergraduate students helping UW-Madison instructors build on-line courses in Moodle. Feedback Manager is one of the tools available to all UW-Madison instructors.