Technology and Feedback Design

Abstract

This chapter provides a synthesis of recent research into how technology can support effective feedback. It begins by adopting a definition of feedback in line with recent advances in feedback research. Rather than viewing feedback as mere information provision, feedback is viewed as an active process that students undertake using information from a variety of sources. The results of a systematic literature search into technology and feedback are then presented, structured around the parties involved in feedback: students, their peers, educators, and computers. The specific feedback technologies focused on include digital recordings; bug in ear technologies; automated feedback; and intelligent tutoring systems. Based on this synthesis of the literature, benefits, challenges and design implications are presented for key feedback technologies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of improved feedback approaches that are likely to be enabled by technology in the future.

Transforming Feedback: An Application Framework for Group Feedback Videos in Design

“…Dawson et al . () provide a systematic literature review focusing on 30 recent research articles in this space. Screencasting and face‐to‐camera are two common techniques for providing video feedback.…”

Understanding Students’ Engagement with Personalised Feedback Messages

“…For example, students might not fully understand received feedback, and might required need help to fully comprehend it [48]. This discrepancy between the potential and actual use of feedback has been referred to as "feedback gap" [17,19] or "feedback paradox" [77]. To narrow the gap, researchers have investigated how students receive and interpret feedback and which behavioural and emotional hurdles hold students back from making the best use of it [54,74,75].…”

“…For example, highly developed self-regulated learning (SRL) [72] skills in large extent determine how students utilise the provided feedback to alter their study approaches [11]. Finally, the perception of feedback is further influenced by learners' goals and study habits [17], as well as different personal and demographic characteristics [70]. [36], communicating feedback is the starting point in the feedback process, rather than its ending point.…”

“…The number of fee-paying international students has also soared globally to compensate for the declining government funds, further increasing the diversity of student body who have different learning needs and feedback expectations [4,6,34]. In these circumstances, universities started devising plans to meet students' demands and give all students equal chances for academic success, regardless of their background and socio-economic status [2,17,34,45,61,79]. Finally, there has been a substantial increase in class sizes and part-time teaching appointments, which limited the ability of instructors to track student progress and tailor feedback to their needs and expectations [9,57,58].…”

“…To overcome the feedback challenges, technological advances came in with the promise of providing feedback at scale [17,50]. A rich source of information about students' learning processes is contained in educational databases and learning management systems so educators and researchers can take advantage of the data deluge to turn raw data into actionable feedback and help students in their learning process [43,50].…”