Introducing Discussion Grading in Interactive Study Material
The Discussion Grading feature is a new, optional step you can add to any existing Interactive Study Material activity in FeedbackFruits. It supports all formats—documents, video, and audio—with no special requirements for the type of content used.
How It Works
This step is ideal for activities that require students to:
- Contribute by posting discussion threads.
- Engage with peers by replying a minimum number of times.
- Collaborate in groups, making the activity highly scalable.
You can add the Discussion Grading step manually by clicking the “Add learning step” button. Select “Rate student discussion contributions”, and a new module will appear.
Configuring the Grading Criteria
As a teacher, you can define how student contributions are evaluated.
Click the Configure button to:
- Create new grading criteria from scratch,
- Reuse criteria from another activity, or
- Import templates from the Learning Design Community.
Once added, these criteria will be used to assess every student’s contributions to the discussion.
What Students See
After setup, a “Received Review” step is automatically added. This allows students to view the feedback and grading they’ve received based on their contributions.
The Grading module will also appear in the flow, allowing students to earn a grade both for:
- Completing required elements (e.g., reading material, answering question cards, participating in discussions), and
- The quality of their contributions, assessed using your configured rubric.
Reviewing Student Contributions
Once students have made contributions (e.g., added comments or replies), you can start reviewing their work.
Click “Start reviewing” to open the review interface:
- On the left: You’ll see your configured rubric, allowing you to give holistic feedback.
- In the center: All discussion threads created by the student, along with their replies to others, are displayed for review.
When a review is completed, the student immediately receives the feedback and can view it within their activity. You can also track which students have already viewed their feedback.
Optional: Add a Reflection Step
For deeper learning, consider adding a Reflection step. This encourages students to think critically about their performance and what they learned from the feedback.
Final Step: Submit Grades
Once grading is complete, you can submit student scores directly to your Learning Management System (LMS), using the rubric criteria defined in the grading step.