Electronic Feedback or Handwritten Feedback What Do Undergraduate

Electronic Feedback or Handwritten Feedback: What Do Undergraduate Students Prefer and Why? Ni Chang, Bruce Watson, Michelle Bakerson, Emily Williams, Frank Mc. Goron & Bruce Spitzer Indiana University South Bend Introduction Feedback, regardless of its form, is important to student learning (Case, 2007; Ferguson, 2011; Krause & Stark, 2010). To this end, some instructors spend time providing feedback directly onto hardcopies of students’ assignments (handwritten feedback) while others use a keyboard and send feedback electronically to students (electronic feedback). However, discontent among students with instructor’s feedback was commonly noted in the NUS Survey (2008) and Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2007). Some students show indifferent attitude toward feedback by, for example, not collecting their marked work or even by throwing away feedback when disliking grades on their assignments (Higgins, Hartley, & Skelton, 2001). According to Krause and Start (2010), students’ perceptions of different forms of feedback are at times inconsistent and contradictory. What are students’ perceptions when it comes to handwritten and electronic feedback? What kinds of feedback do students expect? The main objective of this study, therefore, was to examine which undergraduate students preferred; handwritten or electronic feedback and to understand the underlying reasons for these preferences. Method This was a survey study. The survey questions, which were provided via an online application of Lime Survey, were developed by the four researchers and reviewed by a faculty member with expertise in instructional technology. This study invited 664 undergraduate students from the School of Education at a Mid-western university to take part in the study. Two hundred fifty students completely finished the survey, leaving the return rate 38%. Among 250 participants, 80% were female, while 17% were male. Except for two who did not report their age, there were 147 participants (59%) ranging from 18 to over 45 years of age. Except for 19 students 8% failed to report their GPA, most participants 65% indicated that their GPA was 3. 01 -4. 00. Over half of all respondents 66%, described their major as elementary, while 33% self-identified as secondary education majors (see the tables below). The data were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS 19 for frequency and nonparametric tests to obtain answers to the first question and part of the second research question. The rest of the second research question was answered thorough the analysis of qualitative responses, which consisted of coding the survey responses and of aggregating the codes to identify themes (Charmaz, 2000; Creswell, 2002). Results 45% 40% 38% 35% 32% 30% 25% 20% 16% 15% Electronic Handwritten 10% 5% 5% 3% 0% ACCESSIBILITY LEGIBILITY 0% TIMELINESS 1% PERSONAL QUALITY 0% MISCELLANEOUS 60% 57% 50% 40% 30% 20% 16% 14% 10% 3% 0% 0% ACCESSIBILITY LEGIBILITY TIMELINESS PERSONAL QUALITY MISCELLANEOUS Discussion The study’s findings show that the majority of the students preferred electronic feedback because of its easy timeliness and accessibility. Yet despite the outnumbered complaints of illegible handwriting, the reasons for those who cared most about handwritten feedback were that it offered a clearer direction as to how to improve student learning and it allowed students to relate to professors and showed that professors cared about their learning. Yearning for quality feedback was strongly reflected through the final comments by all the participants. Thus, it is implied that efforts should be made to hammer out strategies to promote student learning via feedback in a way that students are willing to read and use it to improve their learning. The data from this survey study were the respondents’ subjective reports and represent their various levels of experiences with different feedback. Future research may involve the replication and expansion of the present study and examine preferences of undergraduate students and graduate students alike.