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Making the Most of Early Feedback in Flipped STEM Courses

Ellen Ovenden, MSc | Feb 28, 2026
Ellen Ovenden, MSc | Feb 28 2026

In the first weeks of term, you’re often teaching in the dark. Grades arrive late and only summarize what has already happened. Early feedback shows you what students understand while there’s still time to adjust.

We previously focused on choosing which module to flip. Let’s explore building quick, low-stakes feedback into the start of a flipped course without adding a heavy marking load.

Simple checks built around ready-to-use materials, like short pre-class videos, can give you useful signals.

Simple Early Checks for Understanding

Keep the focus on quick information for you and low pressure for students:

  • ▪️ Assign one short pre-class quiz per week.

    Auto-graded quizzes attached to short videos show who has engaged and which ideas need more attention. In a recent meta-analysis, frequent low-stakes quizzes were linked to moderate gains in performance and more than doubled the odds of passing a class.1
  • ▪️ Include a “confidence question.”

    Ask students to rate how confident they feel about applying a key idea on a 1–3 scale. This can be built into the quiz or collected with a quick poll.
  • ▪️ Identify a “muddiest point.”

    At the end of the week, ask students to note one thing they’re still confused about in a sentence, then skim for patterns instead of grading every response.
  • ▪️ Add a short practice item with feedback.

    One exam-style question with a model answer or worked solution gives students a clear reference point and reduces the gap between early work and graded tests. Low-stakes quizzes support confidence as well as performance.2

 → In Action

In a first-year general chemistry course, the instructor adds a 3-question online quiz to the first flipped module on mole concepts. Results show many students can compute moles but struggle to link the value to a balanced equation. The next class begins with one targeted example on that step before moving into group problem solving.

 → In Action

In an introductory anatomy and physiology lab, students watch a video on blood vessel structure before week one and complete a 5-item quiz. Many miss a question on the difference between arteries and arterioles. The lab instructor adjusts by spending 5 minutes on a labeled diagram at the bench, then moves ahead with the planned activity.

Janowiak

 

Key Takeaways

Early feedback does what grades cannot: it shows you where students are struggling while there is still time to respond, and it gives students a clear sense of how they’re doing before the first exam.

When quick checks are tied to pre-class videos, they fit into existing routines, support different levels of preparedness, and help you focus limited class time where it matters most.

To make this practical, we’ll design a pre-class video playlist aligned with your course.

  1. Sotola, L. K., & Crede, M. (2021). Regarding class quizzes: A meta analytic synthesis of studies on the relationship between frequent low stakes testing and class performance. Educational Psychology Review, 33(2), 407–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09563-9
  2. Kenney, K. L., & Bailey, H. (2021). Low stakes quizzes improve learning and reduce overconfidence in college students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 21(2), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v21i2.28650



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