Making the Most of Instructor Feedback in APPLE

There is a moment that many learners know well. You have worked hard on an assignment. You have read the material, thought carefully about the prompts, and submitted your best effort. And then the feedback arrives. It is detailed, specific, and more extensive than anything you received in your previous academic experience.

What you do with that moment matters.

Feedback Is Part of the Teaching

In a traditional course, feedback often arrives after the grade has been recorded. It explains what went wrong, or occasionally what went right, and then the class moves on. In a competency-based program, feedback works differently. Because mastery — not completion — is the standard, feedback is not a postscript to the learning. It is part of the learning.

APPLE faculty use detailed rubrics in D2L Brightspace to evaluate your work against clearly defined competency standards. Alongside the rubric, you will receive written summative comments that explain where your work demonstrated mastery, where it fell short, and what would strengthen it. Some faculty also share audio or video feedback to add a more personal, conversational touch. All of it is offered in the same spirit. Feedback is not meant to judge, but to guide.

Read It Carefully. Then Read It Again.

Adult learners tend to engage with feedback seriously. That is one of the gifts you bring to this program. But seriousness can sometimes tip into something less helpful. You may find yourself reading feedback as a verdict on your ability rather than as instruction for your growth.

When feedback arrives, resist the urge to scan quickly for the bottom line. Read it carefully and completely. Notice what your faculty member affirmed, not just what they asked you to reconsider. Ask yourself what the feedback is telling you about the competency standard. What does mastery actually look like, and how does your work compare? If something is unclear, reach out and ask. Your faculty member wrote that feedback because they want you to succeed. A clarifying question is not an imposition; it is exactly the kind of engaged learner behavior that CBE is designed to encourage.

Resubmission Is Not Failure

If your work does not yet meet the competency standard, you will be asked to revise and resubmit. Before you do, you will meet with your faculty member in a scheduled virtual meeting to talk through what needs to be adjusted or refined. Many learners find these conversations to be among the most valuable in the program. They are focused on your specific work and how to strengthen it.

It is worth saying plainly: resubmission is not failure. It is the CBE process working exactly as it is designed to work. The goal is mastery, and mastery sometimes requires more than one attempt. What matters is not how many times you submit, but what you learn between submissions. Ideally, competency is demonstrated within three attempts, not because there is a hard limit, but because consistent progress serves you well in the long run.

Carry It Forward

The most important thing you can do with feedback is use it for the assignment in front of you and for the work that follows. Patterns in your feedback over time are worth paying attention to. If multiple instructors are asking you to go deeper in your analysis, or to connect your reflections more explicitly to course content, that is not a coincidence. It is a signal about where your growth edge is, and it is an invitation to lean in.

Your monthly faculty mentor meeting is a natural space to reflect on feedback across your courses. If you are noticing a pattern — or if you are struggling to understand what an instructor is asking of you — bring it to your mentor. That conversation is exactly what the mentor meeting is designed for.

Feedback in APPLE is not something that happens to you. It is something you participate in, respond to, and grow through. Approached with openness and humility, it becomes one of the most powerful tools in your formation as a Christian educator.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” — Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)