ERIC Number: EJ1032053
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jul
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1479-7860
EISSN: N/A
Audio Feedback -- Better Feedback?
Voelkel, Susanne; Mello, Luciane V.
Bioscience Education, v22 n1 p16-30 Jul 2014
National Student Survey (NSS) results show that many students are dissatisfied with the amount and quality of feedback they get for their work. This study reports on two case studies in which we tried to address these issues by introducing audio feedback to one undergraduate (UG) and one postgraduate (PG) class, respectively. In case study one audio feedback was given to half of the UG class whereas the other half received written feedback for a low stake (10%) exam style essay. In case study two audio feedback only was given to the PG class for a purely formative assignment which formed the basis for a final, summative piece of work. In both studies, audio feedback was received favourably as students found it clear, detailed and personal. A comparison between audio and written feedback (case study one) indicated that audio feedback left students more satisfied and provided more explanatory as well as motivational comments than written feedback. Generating audio feedback proved to be significantly more time consuming (by five minutes per script) than written feedback, but was more efficient in the sense that it produced nearly 10 times as much and higher quality feedback per unit of time. However, neither form of feedback led to an increase in students' subsequent performance in a final, summative exam essay. We conclude that audio feedback is better feedback in terms of student experience but it is still unclear if audio feedback can lead to higher attainment than other forms of feedback.
Descriptors: Feedback (Response), Case Studies, Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, Essays, Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Formative Evaluation, Summative Evaluation, Audiovisual Communications, Verbal Communication, Questionnaires, Faculty Workload, Participant Satisfaction, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries, Physiology, Zoology, Biological Sciences
Centre for Bioscience, The Higher Education Academy. Room 9.15 Worsley Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. Tel: +44-113-343-3001; Fax: +44-113-343-5894; e-mail: beej@leeds.ac.uk; Web site: http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Postsecondary Education; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A