But First Coffee

Before you make a public comment related to performance, there are a couple of important things to consider.

Be Careful Naming Names

Read the room. Would calling out a student for doing something awesome make other students feel less confident?

Don't comment on surprisingly poor performance by your ace students thinking it might make everyone else feel better. As the example of Mark illustrates, that could go really poorly.

These are the three mains ways, outside of content, that faculty communicate with students. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks and there are times when each is most appropriate.

When To Use Which

You might not think this would take much consideration but there are a few situations you might find yourself debating about which would be best.

Conduct Corrections

If a conduct issue arrises on a discussion board, the reply function is built right in. However, feedback to the individual student would be the better option.

Good Points

When reviewing student discussion posts, you might come across something particularly good or that raises a really good point for further exploration. You might recognize the student's work and provide additional related resources in feedback. However, if you give that recognition and resource in a reply, the whole class benefits. They benefit from the resource, their attention is drawn in the right direction, and they see you actively valuing student work.

Common Issues

If you see the same issues cropping up in student work, you could provide feedback to each student addressing the issue. If it's in a discussion, you could post a reply to each student. These are both great options. However, you could also post an announcement to the whole class. This way, you address everyone in one post and students see they're not alone in their struggle with difficult material.