Despite the central role that assignment feedback plays in any form of learning, Higher Education students consistently report this as one of the areas in greatest need of improvement. In this context, technological solutions could potentially play a key role in improving the quality and effectiveness of feedback. Assignment feedback can now be exchanged electronically (e-feedback) through a variety of written, spoken, audiovisual and audiographic media, and the potential benefits of these modalities have been demonstrated in many recent studies. However, these are often conducted soon after the new medium has been introduced and involve relatively small samples of students and tutors.
The aim of this project was therefore to evaluate the use of spoken and written e-feedback when these modes of delivery have been used across an entire subject area for some time. To this end, the evaluation focused on current practice at the Open University, where the use of both audio-recorded and written e-feedback has been standard practice at the Department of Languages for a number of years. The evaluation looked at…
- the quality of feedback itself
- staff and student perceptions
- student engagement