Examining teaching and learning through feedback in open distance and e-learning: The views of the students
Abstract
If virtual assessment lies at the heart of the open, distance and e-learning experience, then information about student responses to the assessment is vital. Feedback is generally thought of as being conveyed by the e-tutor to the student; however, the feedback mechanisms ecosystem demonstrates that student-to-lecturer and student-to-institution are also vital types of feedback. The study followed the mixed method approach to investigate the perceptions of 148 students in the Department of Educational Management universities in South Africa. Of the participants, 143 responded to questionnaires, and the remaining 5 were interviewed by means of a semi-structured interview schedule. The findings indicate that e-tutors did provide feedback to their students, and also that the efficient provision of effective feedback is essential to student learning and continues to be a key concern for many higher education institutions. However, the study also revealed that e-tutors provided conventional, one-dimensional assessment feedback, with negative consequences for teaching and learning. It is recommended that e-tutors should give feedback that encourages students rather than expressing criticism.
Downloads
References
Black, Paul and Robert McCormick. 2010. “Reflections and new directions.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5): 493–499.
Carless, David and Naomi Winstone. 2020. “Teacher feedback literacy and its interplay with student feedback literacy.” Teaching in Higher Education 28(69): 1‒14.
Chung, Gregory K., Tammy Shel, and William Joseph Kaiser. 2006. “An exploratory study of a novel online formative assessment and instructional tool to promote students’ circuit problem solving.” The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment 5(6).
Hattie, John and Helen Timperley. 2007. “The power of feedback.” Review of Educational Research 77(1): 81–112.
Henderson, Michael, David Boud, Elizabeth Molley, Phillip Dowson, Michael Phillips, Tracii Ryan, and Paige Mahoney. 2018. Feedback for learning: Closing the assessment loop. Framework for effective feedback. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education and Training/Monash, Deakin & Melbourne Universities.
Hounsell, Dai. 2007. “Towards More Sustainable feedback to students.” In Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education, Learning for the larger Term, ed. D. Boud and N. Falchikov, 101‒113. London: Routledge.
Hounsell, Dai. 2021. “Feedback in Postgraduate Online Learning: Perspectives and Practices.” In Online Postgraduate Education in a Post Digital World, 39–62. Springer, Cham.
Hounsell, Dai, Velda McCune, Jenny Hounsell, and Judith Litjens. 2008. “The quality of guidance and feedback to students.” Higher Education Research & Development 27(1): 55–67.
Howard, Dawn C. 1987. “Course design: Designing student feedback in distance education.” American Journal of Distance Education 1(3): 24–40.
Kreonidou, Georgia and Vassilia Kazamia. 2019. “Assignment feedback in distance education: How do students perceive it?” Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning 10(1): 134–153.
Nicol, David. 2010. “From monologue to dialogue: Improving written feedback processes in mass higher education.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5): 501–517.
Nicol, David J. and Debra Macfarlane‐Dick. 2006. “Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice.” Studies in Higher Education 31(2): 199–218.
Price, Margaret, Karen Handley, Jill Millar, and Berry O’Donovan. 2010. “Feedback: All that effort, but what is the effect?” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35(3): 277–289.
Sadler, D. Royce. 2010. “Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in complex appraisal.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5): 535–550.
Scott, David, Gwyneth Hughes, Carol Evans, Penny Burke, Catharine Walter, and David Watson. 2014. Learning Transitions in Higher Education. London: Palgrave.
Segoe, Bobo. 2013. “Feedback measures as a strategy for student support in open distance learning: Can it come to the aid of weary student teachers?” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 4(14): 705.
Styer, Audrey J. 2007. “A grounded meta-analysis of adult student motivation in online learning from the perspective of the student.” Doctoral dissertation, Capella University.
Ukpo, Eugenia Onwu. 2006. “Support for distance learners in a Nigerian distance education programme.” Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning 21(3): 253‒261.
Walker, Mirabelle. 2009. “An investigation into written comments on assignments: Do students find them usable?” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 34(1): 67–78.
Weaver, Melanie R. 2006. “Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors’ written responses.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 31(3): 379–394.
White, Cynthia. 2005. “Contribution of distance education to the development of individual students.” Distance Education 26(2): 165–181.
Wilkinson, Sara J. 2003. “Improving student learning in dissertation research through feedback studies. The Sheffield Hallam Building surveying experience.” In FIG 2003: Proceedings of the 2003 International Federation of Surveyors Conference, 1–15).
Wion, Freddy. 2008. “Feedback on assignments in distance education.” In 24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, 5 to 8 August 2008, Madison, Wisconsin.
Copyright (c) 2023 Rudzani Israel Lumadi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
