Targeted Feedback With MindTap Bongo Activities – The Cengage Blog

College students are juggling a lot right now: a tougher job market, more pressure to “sound professional” on camera, and the ever-present temptation of generative AI doing the heavy lifting. In that kind of world, generic feedback like “Good work!” is basically a participation trophy for your gradebook.
What students actually need is targeted feedbackclear, timely, specific coaching that points to the next move, not just the final score.

That’s why video-based practice tools (especially the kind built directly into the course flow) are getting so much attention. When students can rehearse, reflect, revise, and try againbefore the high-stakes momentfeedback becomes a skill-builder instead of a stress souvenir.
And that’s the sweet spot where MindTap Bongo activities can shine.

Why “targeted feedback” suddenly matters more than ever

Targeted feedback is the difference between “You missed the mark” and “Your intro is strong, but your evidence is doing the ‘trust me, bro’ thingadd one credible source and explain how it supports your claim.”
It’s feedback that’s:

• Prioritized (students can only fix so many things at once)
• Specific (points to the exact moment or element that needs work)
• Actionable (tells them what to do next, not what they did wrong)
• Timely (arrives while they still remember what they were thinking)
• Supportive (keeps students in “learning mode,” not “defense lawyer mode”)

In practical terms, targeted feedback is what turns a shaky first attempt into a better second attemptespecially for skills that require performance: presenting, interviewing, explaining a process, demonstrating competence, or persuading an audience.

MindTap + Bongo in plain English

MindTap is Cengage’s online learning platform. Inside some MindTap courses, Bongo is the video tool that lets students deliver live or recorded presentations to instructors and classmates. The point isn’t “be a YouTuber.”
The point is: practice a skill, get feedback, improve, repeatwithout turning every attempt into a public spectacle.

Think of a Bongo activity like a structured practice room:
students record themselves, submit work, and receive feedback through options like rubrics, peer review, and time-stamped comments. In some workflows, learners can also get AI-driven coaching feedback (useful for repeated, low-stakes skill practice).

How targeted feedback works inside a Bongo activity

Targeted feedback isn’t magic. It’s a system. Bongo-style video activities can support that system by making feedback easier to deliver and easier to use.
Here’s what “targeted” looks like in a well-designed workflow:

1) Students practice in a low-stakes environment

The first attempt is where confidence is fragile. If the first attempt is also the final grade, students often play it safeor avoid it. A low-stakes Bongo activity can help students rehearse and build comfort (especially for oral communication) before an in-class or high-stakes performance.

2) Feedback is anchored to observable criteria

The fastest way to make feedback feel “unfair” is to keep expectations fuzzy. A rubric turns “be clearer” into measurable targets like:
organization, evidence, audience awareness, delivery pace, filler words, professionalism, or technical accuracy.
When students can see the rubric up front, they stop guessing what you want and start aiming at what matters.

3) Comments connect to exact moments

Video feedback can be vague if it isn’t anchored. Time-stamped comments help you point to the exact second where the issue happens:
the rushed definition, the missing transition, the awkward slide read, the unconvincing claim, the moment eye contact vanished into the shadow realm.
Students don’t have to rewatch the entire video wondering, “Waitwhat part did they mean?”

4) Peer review multiplies feedbackwithout multiplying your workload

Peer review is powerful when it’s structured. Instead of “Nice presentation!” (a sentence that helps nobody), students can use a shared rubric to give constructive, criteria-based feedback.
With the right settings, peer review can also be assigned evenly and (optionally) anonymized, which can reduce social pressure and increase honesty.

5) Revision is built into the culture

The real win is when students treat feedback like a tool, not a verdict. When they’re allowedeven encouragedto revise after feedback,
they start using comments as a checklist for improvement. That’s how you turn grading into coaching.

Design feedback students actually use (not just “receive”)

Students can “receive feedback” the same way they “receive” spam emails: technically delivered, emotionally ignored. To make feedback usable, try a few rules that work especially well with video assignments:

Use the “One strength, two growth moves” pattern

• One strength: name a specific behavior worth repeating (builds confidence and clarity)
• Two growth moves: the highest-impact changes for the next attempt

This keeps feedback prioritized and prevents the classic teacher trap: writing a novel in the comments… that nobody reads because it’s a novel.

Speak in “next attempt” language

Instead of “This is confusing,” try: “On your next attempt, add a one-sentence roadmap after your intro: point A, point B, point C.”
Students are more likely to act when the feedback comes with an immediate, concrete move.

Make tone do some heavy lifting

Especially in diverse classrooms, tone matters. Feedback can land as coachingor as rejectiondepending on how it’s framed.
A simple line like “I’m being detailed here because I know you can hit a higher standard” can keep students motivated instead of discouraged.

Specific examples you can run with MindTap Bongo activities

Below are practical, classroom-ready activity patterns that align with targeted feedback principles.
Adjust the topic to fit your disciplinecommunication, nursing, business, education, criminal justice, IT, you name it.

Example 1: “Camera warm-up” micro-presentations (2 minutes)

Goal: reduce anxiety, build fluency, and teach students how to improve incrementally.

• Prompt: “Explain one concept from this week to a smart friend who missed class.”
• Rubric: clarity, accuracy, and one real-world example
• Targeted feedback: time-stamp one moment where clarity drops and suggest a rewrite
• Revision: record a second take after feedback

Bonus: students stop acting like the camera is a wild animal that might attack them.

Example 2: Interactive video “pause-and-respond” checkpoints

Goal: keep students engaged and diagnose misconceptions early.

• Prompt: show a short scenario video, then ask students to respond at key moments
• Response options: multiple choice checks + short video response (where appropriate)
• Targeted feedback: comment on reasoning, not just correctness

This works beautifully for case-based learning: counseling role-plays, business negotiation, patient communication, lab procedure explanation, or classroom management scenarios.

Example 3: Rubric-based peer review that doesn’t collapse into compliments

Goal: train students to give and use meaningful feedback (a career skill, not just a class skill).

• Set expectations: give a “good feedback vs. fluff feedback” mini-lesson
• Require evidence: every peer comment must reference a rubric criterion
• Make it actionable: each reviewer must suggest one specific revision
• Reflection: the speaker writes a short plan: “I’ll revise X, Y, Z because…”

Example 4: Process-over-product writing support (with video + drafts)

Goal: reduce “polished final draft panic,” increase iteration, and strengthen academic integrity.

• Prompt: students record a short “author’s memo” explaining their thesis and evidence choices
• Feedback focus: argument structure, audience, purpose, and evidence alignment
• Targeted feedback: ask one clarifying question and request one concrete revision step

When students explain their reasoning out loud, it becomes much harder to hide behind generic text. You’re assessing thinking, not just typing.

Example 5: Q&A skill checks (interview-style)

Goal: build “think on your feet” communication for internships and workplace readiness.

• Prompt: “Explain how you’d handle a customer concern / patient question / classroom disruption.”
• Rubric: empathy, clarity, accuracy, and next-step recommendation
• Targeted feedback: time-stamp one moment where tone or clarity shifts, then coach the fix

Measuring impact (without becoming an Excel villain)

Targeted feedback should move outcomes, not just feelings. The trick is keeping measurement simple:

• Before-and-after comparison: first attempt vs. revised attempt using the same rubric
• Common trend notes: track 2–3 recurring issues across the class (pace, evidence, organization)
• Engagement signals: look for patterns between time-on-task and performance

If your platform analytics show how engagement relates to performance, you can spot students who need support earlybefore the course becomes a rescue mission in week 14.

Equity, accessibility, and the “please don’t make me re-record 27 times” problem

Video assignments can be empoweringor exhaustingdepending on how they’re designed. A few guardrails help:

• Limit attempts intentionally: allow a couple of practice takes, then shift focus to revision planning
• Offer modality flexibility: when appropriate, allow audio-only or camera + screen instead of camera-only
• Normalize imperfection: the goal is improvement, not Hollywood production values
• Make expectations explicit: students should know what “good” looks like (rubrics help)
• Use supportive language: students are more likely to persist when feedback signals care and confidence

Common pitfalls (and how to dodge them)

Pitfall: Feedback overload

If you comment on everything, students fix nothing. Pick the top two changes that will create the biggest improvement.

Pitfall: Peer review without training

Students aren’t born knowing how to critique constructively. Teach what helpful feedback looks like, require rubric references, and model one example.

Pitfall: Rubrics that read like legal documents

Rubrics should be clear enough that students can use them while workingnot only after they’re graded.
Use student-friendly language, and keep criteria aligned to the skill you’re building.

Pitfall: Using AI feedback as a substitute for teaching

AI feedback can be great for repetition and low-stakes practice, but it’s not a replacement for instructor judgment, course context, or human coaching.
The best approach is “AI for immediate practice + instructor for targeted growth.”

Conclusion: Targeted feedback is a teaching strategy, not just a grading feature

The biggest promise of MindTap Bongo activities isn’t that students can record videos. Students can record videos on their phones right nowprobably while reading this sentence.
The real promise is that the activity can be built into a learning loop: practice → targeted feedback → revision → improvement.

When feedback is specific, timely, and tied to clear criteria, students don’t just “get a grade.” They build communication skills that travel with theminto presentations, interviews, clinical conversations, team meetings, and all the places where being clear matters.
In other words: feedback becomes a career skill, not a comment box.

Bonus: of real-world classroom experiences (and what they teach us)

Below are composite, real-to-life experiences instructors commonly describe when they move from traditional grading to targeted feedback with video-based practice tools. No fairy talesjust the messy, useful stuff that happens when humans learn.

Experience 1: The nervous presenter who finally finds their voice

In many public speaking or communication courses, there’s always a student who understands the content but freezes in delivery. On the first video attempt, you might see a rapid speaking rate, minimal pauses, and a “please end my suffering” facial expression.
The old approach would be: grade the performance, move on, hope confidence appears by magic.
The targeted approach is different: the instructor time-stamps two momentsone where the student’s main point is strong, and one where the student rushes through a key explanation.
The feedback is short and concrete: “Keep your example at 0:42it’s your clearest moment. At 1:18, slow down and add one sentence defining the term before you use it.”

What happens next is the whole point: the student re-records with a simple goal (pace + definition), not a vague command to “be better.”
Attempt two isn’t perfect, but it’s noticeably strongerand the student can feel the improvement, which boosts motivation for attempt three.
Confidence stops being a personality trait and starts being the result of practice plus coaching.

Experience 2: Peer review becomes a skill, not a popularity contest

Peer review can go wrong fast when students think the job is to be nice. Many instructors report early peer comments like “Great job!” and “I liked it!”which is sweet, but also useless.
The fix is structure: reviewers must reference a rubric criterion and include one suggestion that can be acted on in the next attempt.
When students are guided to say, “Your organization is strong, but your evidence needs one more source,” they start learning how to evaluate work professionally.
That’s not just academic; it’s workplace-ready communication.

Another common improvement: requiring the presenter to write a 4–5 sentence “feedback action plan.” Students summarize recurring themes, choose one change to prioritize, and explain what they’ll revise.
This simple step turns feedback from “received” into “used.”

Experience 3: Writing instruction gets more human

In writing courses (and writing-heavy courses across disciplines), instructors often struggle with the same issue: students submit a final draft, get comments, and never look at them again because the unit is over.
When students add a short video reflectionexplaining their thesis, audience, and evidence choicesfeedback becomes a conversation.
Instructors can respond with one clarifying question and one targeted revision move.
Students report that this feels less like being judged and more like being coached.

Many instructors also note something quietly important: when the process is emphasized (drafting, explaining, revising), students are less tempted to outsource their thinking.
Not because you threatened them with a policy document, but because the learning loop actually supports them.

Experience 4: Instructors get time back (without lowering standards)

The surprise win instructors mention is efficiency. Not “I stopped giving feedback,” but “I stopped giving extra feedback that students couldn’t use.”
A short rubric + a few targeted, time-stamped comments often outperforms a long paragraph of general critique.
Standards stay high, but the coaching gets sharper.
And when peer review is structured, students receive more feedback overallwithout the instructor turning into a 24/7 comment vending machine.

The big takeaway from these experiences is consistent: targeted feedback works best when the activity design makes improvement inevitableclear criteria, specific comments, and a real chance to apply them.
Students don’t need “more feedback.” They need the right feedback, at the right time, with the right next step.