According to Mather and Scheepers (2025), providing students with feedback is one of the most important aspects for teaching and learning. However, it is not uncommon for students to avoid engaging with feedback, even when instructors invest significant time in providing detailed comments. Written/typed feedback is often overlooked, underused, or misinterpreted. If feedback is essential to learning, why do so many students fail to engage with it, and how might instructors rethink their approach?
Below are some reasons why students may ignore feedback as well as some practical tips to implement to increase the feedback view rate.
1. Timing of Feedback
The timing of feedback can influence whether students engage with it. As more time passes between completing an assignment and receiving feedback, students often feel detached from the work, reducing their motivation to review comments. Feedback is most effective when it is provided immediately or shortly after an assignment has been submitted, while the material is still in students’ minds, allowing them to connect the feedback directly to their work. Timely feedback also reinforces learning as a continuous process rather than a one-time evaluation. For example, a student who receives brief comments on a draft or quiz within a few days and are encouraged to apply that feedback to a similar upcoming assignment are much more likely to read and act on it than if detailed feedback arrives weeks later, after the class has moved on.
Tip: Provide feedback quickly when possible, and link feedback to upcoming tasks to encourage application.
2. Specificity of Feedback
Vague or general feedback can leave students unsure of what they did well, what needs improvement, or how to improve. Comments like “good job” or “this section is unclear” offer little guidance and may lead to confusion. Without specific suggestions, students often struggle to apply feedback to future work. For example, writing “your argument is a bit weak” provides minimal direction on an essay, whereas “your argument would be stronger if you clearly stated your position in the introduction paragraph and supported your position with evidence from some of our course readings” provides the student with specific feedback that they can use in their next essay.
Tip: Make feedback specific and point out exact areas that need improvement and corresponding suggestions to strengthen those areas.
3. Access to Feedback
Even quick and detailed feedback is ineffective if students cannot find or access it, which can be especially true when using an online learning management system (LMS). First-semester students may still be learning to navigate the platform, locate assignments, or interpret notifications. If feedback is hidden within folders, tabs, attachments, or requires multiple steps to access, students may miss it entirely. For example, a student might see only their grade in the LMS and assume that’s all the information available, unaware that detailed comments are stored elsewhere. To prevent this, instructors can provide clear instructions at the beginning of the semester regarding how to access the feedback along with a demonstration. Further, instructors can have students respond to one piece of feedback, such as through an email or a discussion board, to demonstrate the students know how to access the feedback. Moreover, instructors can send reminders/post announcements that include steps on how to access the feedback.
Tip: Clearly explain where and how students can access feedback, encourage a quick task where students respond to one piece of feedback on the first assignment, and reinforce it with reminders if needed.
4. Applicability of Feedback
Students may undervalue feedback if they see it as relevant only to the current assignment. If feedback feels isolated, they may not recognize how it can help them improve skills in future tasks. Students’ engagement with the feedback is related to applicability of the feedback (Isings, 2025). A student receiving feedback on a lab report that says, “Your conclusions are not well-supported by your data” might not realize that developing evidence-based conclusions is a skill applicable to all scientific writing, including essays, projects, or future reports. Without guidance on transfer, students may repeat mistakes, treating each assignment as separate rather than part of a broader learning trajectory.
Instructors can address this by linking feedback to ongoing skill development. Strategies include having students reflect on key takeaways, showing how similar feedback applies to other assignments, or connecting comments to course-wide learning outcomes and rubrics. By demonstrating the relevance of feedback beyond a single task, instructors help students to view feedback as a tool for long-term growth rather than a one-time grade evaluation.
Tip: Help students connect feedback to broader skills and future work to encourage lasting learning and improvement.
5. Questions About Feedback
One of the most effective ways to ensure that feedback is meaningful is to create opportunities for students to ask questions about it. Students may misinterpret comments or feel uncertain about how to apply suggestions. By inviting questions, instructors help students clarify misunderstandings, deepen their learning, and actively engage with the feedback process.
For example, after returning an assignment, an instructor might set aside time for a short class discussion where the instructor can address the most common mistakes in the assignments and show examples of strong pieces. Also, instructors can encourage students to visit them during their office hours to discuss any of the feedback one-on-one.
When students see that it’s acceptable to ask questions about the feedback provided, they might be more likely to reflect on their work and continue to review feedback on subsequent assignments. This, in turn, can also strengthen student-instructor relationships.
Tip: Review common mistakes with the class and allow time for questions, and encourage students to seek opportunities to discuss individual feedback one-on-one.
Overall, feedback is essential to learning and makes a difference when students receive the feedback, understand the feedback, and know how to apply the feedback. Elements such as timing, specificity, accessibility, clarity, and relevance are important. When any of these are lacking, students may ignore the feedback, misinterpret it, or struggle to use it to improve their skills. Through providing prompt feedback, making it clear, ensuring easy access, and helping students understand both how to use it and why it matters for future work, instructors can turn feedback from a simple grade into a powerful learning tool. This approach promotes academic growth while also building student confidence, reflection, and ownership of their learning.
Julia Colella is a communications professor at Lambton College in Sarnia, Ontario. Colella’s PhD is in education, and her research interests include student engagement, online learning, and academic integrity.
References
Isings, E., Dong, C., Samson, H., Jones, S., McCorquodale, L., Telfer, T., Ropp, T., & Bell, C. (2025). Student reflections on mindfully reframing feedback for growth in academic, personal and professional settings. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 16(1), 1-22.
Mather, N., & Scheepers, L. (2025). Feedback on feedback: An exploratory case study of online facilitators’ perceptions regarding their feedback practices in higher education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 26(1), 220-232.
