Narrowing the Feedback Gap: Examining Student Engagement with Personalized and Actionable Feedback Messages

Abstract

One of the major factors affecting student learning is feedback. Although the importance of feedback has been recognized in educational institutions, dramatic changes - such as bigger class sizes and a more diverse student population - challenged the provision of effective feedback. In light of these changes, educators have increasingly been using new digital tools to provide student feedback, given the broader adoption and availability of these new technologies. However, despite these efforts, most educators have limited insight into the recipience of their feedback and wonder which students engage with feedback. This problem is referred to as the "feedback gap," which is the difference between the potential and actual use of feedback, preventing educators and instructional designers from understanding feedback recipience among students. In this study, a set of trackable call-to-action (CTA) links were embedded in feedback messages focused on learning processes and self-regulation of learning in one fully online marketing course and one blended bioscience course. These links helped us examine the association between feedback engagement and course success. We also conducted two focus groups with students from one of the courses to further examine student perceptions of feedback messages. Our results across both courses revealed that early engagement with feedback is positively associated with passing the course and that most students considered feedback messages helpful in their learning. Our study also found some interesting demographic differences between students regarding their engagement with the feedback messages. Such insight enables instructors to ask "why" questions, support students' learning, improve feedback processes, and narrow the gap between potential and actual use of feedback. The practical implications of our findings are further discussed.

Technological Tools for Effective Learning and Personalisation in Higher Education: Systematic Literature Review

“…Moreover, learning outcomes, motivation, and engagement can all be enhanced by the use of technology tools into formative assessment (Kaya-Capocci et al, 2022). Personalized feedback messages sent by technology are also beneficial since they increase student engagement and encourage active learning (Iraj et al, 2021). QS2: What Are the Challenges that Technology Tools Face in Promoting Effective Learning and Personalization in Higher Education?…”

Engagement with Optional Formative Feedback in a Portfolio-Based Digital Design Module

“…Supplying an indicative or actual mark on draft coursework could potentially enable students to better understand their performance and ascertain whether they need to improve their work. A reference point, such as a mark, combined with personalized feedback based on assessment criteria, may help students better comprehend their standing and transform the feedback received into feedforward [25,30]. This opens up a research opportunity to explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of providing provisional grades alongside formative feedback in the context of Computer Science/Software Engineering education [27].…”

What Makes Learning Analytics Research Matter

“…This recognition is central to research that makes visible the range of potentials for the careful design of analytics that are aligned with learning environments to be pedagogically grounded and practically usable in an authentic context (Rodríguez-Triana et al, 2021). Similarly, recognizing the importance of the capacity to use feedback from systems, two further Extended Conference Papers discuss engagement with feedback (Iraj et al, 2021) and student capacity to assess the quality of work (their evaluative judgement; Khosravi et al, 2021).…”