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Designing learning activities and feedback mechanisms

Planning engaging and authentic activities, collaborate activities, providing feedback and examples of online activities

Page last updated:
13 Jan 2026

Well-designed activities keep students motivated, foster community, and promote deeper, independent learning. The suggestions here are relevant when developing content for an online module and can also be used to support a blended learning approach. 

When planning activities, start with your learning outcomes and design with purpose. Tailor the activities to your students’ needs, skills, and motivations. Ensure that you provide clear and consistent instructions and where possible connect activities across the module. 

Try to use a range of activity types to meet the diverse needs of learners and their different perspectives.  Also take into consideration whether your chosen learning activities engage students in a range of views, perspectives and cultural contexts and whether they challenge all students appropriately to engage students who are excelling and those who may be struggling. 

Build in mechanisms for feedback and communicate these to students. Plan your feedback methods strategically to manage the workload, for example encourage peer feedback, share a model answer or create quizzes with automated feedback.  

Learning activity template

Using a simple learning activity design template to aid planning and ensure all important components are included in the activity can be helpful.

You will need to think about:

  • Title: including a brief description
  • Purpose: how does this contribute to achieving the learning outcomes? How does this relate to the summative assessment? How will this activity fit with other activities in the module?
  • Online tool: which is the most appropriate tool for the activity?
  • Instructions: what are students expected to do or contribute to this activity? Provide clear and concise instructions.
  • Timing: how long will it take the students to complete the activity?
  • Support: if students need support who should they contact and how? Is additional support required from any of the University support services?
  • Feedback: how and when will you provide feedback to students?
Further guidance and resources

Authentic activities are important for engagement. Consider building-in: 

  • Activities that students can relate to and that are relevant to their professional roles 
  • Real life case studies that students can link to their own experiences 
  • Opportunities for students to do their own research and follow up their interests 
  • Opportunities for students to speak to people in their professional communities as well as their course communities. For example, invite guest speakers to join webinars and discussions or create short videos and podcasts   

Combine authentic activities with new theories and perspectives or concepts that students may not have encountered. This will help improve and challenge their understanding.

This video provides an example of an authentic activity. In this case it was used as an assessment activity.

Group work develops higher levels of achievement and promotes skills such as collaboration, communication, trust and belonging. Including group activities for distance learners encourages peer interaction, enhances engagement, and can ease feelings of isolation. 

You can use MyBeckett to create groups of students to collaborate on activities, projects, assignments or other types of group work.  

When organising collaborative activities, try to ensure all students feel included and have the best opportunity to succeed. For example: 

  • Keep group sizes small enough to allow for full participation of all members  
  • Announce groups early in the module and ensure you provide opportunities for online community building before introducing group activities 
  • Select the most appropriate tool for the activity taking into account the requirements of the task and  level of interaction required  
  • Provide clear guidance on what is expected of group members and outline timeframes to complete work, allowing for the different time zones and other commitments of your students 
  • Consider using MyBeckett tracking tools to monitor engagement and follow-up with students that do not participate to encourage involvement

The video looks at ways you can allocate students into groups (in both the classroom and online environments).

Formative feedback should be integrated into teaching to provide students with timely feedback they can reflect and act upon. Where appropriate, consider encouraging students to seek, engage with, and take up feedback from other students, stakeholders and/or technologies (such as GenAI).  

  • Use shared online spaces such as discussion boards and webinars, to not only provide general feedback, but help to build a community with your students and encourage peer-to-peer feedback 
  • Offer webinars or drop-in sessions at regular intervals, to provide further explanation, context and guidance – this will also help you to get to know your students 
  • Regular feedback on formative assessments will help students understand how they are progressing and where they may need more help or further study. Give clear critiques and specific advice on how to improve  
  • Timely feedback is important. For example, if feedback on an earlier assignment is necessary before beginning the next, ensure that is provided in good time to enable students to begin as soon as possible
Feedback methods

While students in an online environment value quality feedback, this can cause a heavy burden if you attempt to provide individual feedback to each student for each activity.

Consider other feedback methods such as giving feedback applicable to a whole group or asking students to peer review work. A range of feedback methods will also help to engage your students. These could include:  

  • Written feedback  
  • Verbal (audio can be pre-recorded, and voice comments can be used in Turnitin) 
  • Video feedback  
  • Peer feedback - for example discussion board activities 
  • Group feedback - provide students with model answers, summary posts or collated feedback on discussion boards  
  • Automated feedback via formative quizzes and tests 

Whichever methods you select, ensure that you communicate when and how feedback will be provided.   

Further guidance and resources

Below are a range of asynchronous online activity ideas to make learning more engaging, interactive, and student-centered. These include ways to use LBU supported tools like Microsoft 365, Panopto and MyBeckett. 

You could also ask Copilot to generate further activities tailored to a specific topic or subject area. Examples of using AI to generate learning and teaching activities can be found in the guide: An introduction to Generative AI in Higher Education - AI as your assistant. 

Examples

Audio and video
Embed your own video that guides students through a concept or relevant external media (e.g. TED Talks, YouTube clips). Consider adding quiz questions within Panopto or follow up with a reflection task.  

Interactive presentations
Create interactive presentations that combine text, images, and video using Adobe Express or a narrated slide deck in PowerPoint that guides students through a concept, with embedded questions or prompts.

In practice

This example is a short video, part of a series, to introduce Nutrition students to working with clients. It is made in Adobe Express and was uploaded to Panopto for embedding in the module and sharing with students. 

Examples

Quizzes
Design formative quizzes in MyBeckett or Microsoft Forms with automatic feedback to reinforce learning. 

Scenario-based branching activities
Create a case study or scenario in PowerPoint. Include choices or decision points. Hyperlink each option to a slide with tailored feedback or consequences. 

In practice

This example is a walkthrough video demonstrating how to use the Design Assistant feature in MyBeckett Ultra to generate quiz questions based on selected module content.

Examples

Brainstorming or mind-mapping
Use an online whiteboard to map out ideas on a topic.  

Note-making and reflective writing
Use Microsoft OneNote or the MyBeckett journal tool for individual note-making, reflective journaling, or project planning.  

In practice

This example shows how a OneNote class notebook could be used as a reflective journal for students.

Discussion boards can be one of the strongest tools for inciting a group discussion in an online environment. They can be used for ice breakers and getting to know you activities, formative discussion activities and module FAQs. However, they do require set up, signposting and interaction in order to make them successful.

  • Set-up and seed: Ensure that the thread is set up with an appropriate title and a brief of the discussion or the question being asked as the first thread post. You may also choose to respond to the thread as an example of what students should be doing - usually you would do this in an icebreaker or getting to know you activity.
  • Communicate: Ensure that students are aware that this discussion thread exists and that you expect them to contribute to it. In our distance learning modules, we include a hyperlink in the learning content directly to the discussion board thread so that students are directed to the tool.
  • Moderate, prompt and summarise: When students are responded to, they feel as if they have contributed and that those contributions are valued, and are more likely to continue to contribute. You may choose to respond to each post individually, or you may choose to weave posts together, linking comments coherently (perhaps into themes), prompting students to consider areas they may not yet have touched on, add your own comments and ask a further question if necessary.
Examples

Topic specific discussions
Create topic-specific areas for weekly discussions using MyBeckett discussion boards.   

Question of the week
Post a question related to the week’s topic and ask students to respond and comment on peers’ posts.  

In practice

This example is for the 'question of the week' approach. It shows how the activity is introduced and embedded in the module.

Examples

Group problem-solving
Assign a group task where students problem-solve and/or co-create a document or presentation in real time or asynchronously. For example, using Microsoft Whiteboard, OneNote or Word or PowerPoint via OneDrive.  

Simulations and role-playing
Ask students to act as stakeholders in a case study and respond to a scenario. In character, students submit written or recorded responses, interacting with their group through discussion boards or shared documents.  

In practice

This is a video used to introduce students to a collaborative ' journal club' activity. 

Please note this video has no audio.