Feedback on digital writing

With any sort of writing project I do in my classes, I prefer to have a peer-feedback stage before it comes to me--it's just not practical for me to read three drafts of 70 papers in a timely manner.

One of the problems with peer-feedback is that many students just want to focus on the editing level when I would prefer they begin by looking at more big-picture issues. One way to solve this problem is to have students in writing groups and then create a wiki. On the wiki, each person can post their completed paper for other group members to read. Rather than each student editing the first draft of the paper, they need to begin by leaving one comment at the bottom of the page. That will help them to focus their comments on large ideas, rather than trying to tell what sentence to edit commas in.

I will also use this method to comment on big-picture issues and on in-process papers. I've used this method in the past and the students have found it really helpful. I hesitate to actually edit on a student's wiki page because I want them to do more of the editing than to have me do it. Even when I reach the nearly-final project stage, I can comment on the types of errors they're making or the concerns I see and they can then go through and fix those on their own.

Since I tend to see my students every day or two, I find this method of feedback more useful than other more technologically advanced methods. There are times when I would create a vlog or podcast entry if I see errors that many students are making--or I will make edits on a wiki or blog assignment sheet.