Providing effective feedback for students can be a time-consuming and often frustrating experience for both student and teacher. In an attempt to identify a method for providing feedback that is both engaging for students and time-efficient for staff, a study comparing audio with written feedback was carried out at Curtin College.
Analysis of students' results indicates that while different types of feedback did not result in any significant difference in grades, the evidence from the study's survey indicates an overwhelmingly positive response by most staff and students to audio feedback.
In these slides, Gemma Clarke shares the results of her study and highlights some of the advantages and disadvantages of using audio feedback with a particular focus on Audacity.
Listening to learn: How audio is personalising feedback
1. Audio Feedback-listening for learning
Gemma Clarke (SFHEA, FHERDSA)
Academic Coordinator for Language,
Learning and Teaching
Curtin College, Perth, Western Australia
2. Feedback is VERY IMPORTANT for learning
But, we don’t always feel that our feedback is getting through to our
students. Why?
• lack of English ability,
• lack of motivation,
• incorrect channel/ format,
• not in some student’s zone of proximal development,
• too much jargon,
• impersonal
3. What does
the research
say?
Audio feedback provides a greater sense of
personalisation which fostered student
motivation and interest in their learning
(Merry & Osmond, 2008 and Rotheram, 2009).
Audio feedback provided a sense of
community and a perception of “being there”
(Ice et al., 2007).
Audio feedback shortened the “social
distance” between and student and lecturer
(Morra & Asis, 2009).
11. Results of
Student
Survey
n= 100
84% participation rate
63% male
37% female
17 countries represented
Largest cohort Chinese (n=36 )
Australians/Domestic ( n=5)
Amount of time spent living in Australia ranged from
whole life to 2 months
12. Who answered the
survey questions
52 audio (52%)
39 written (39%)
2 no feedback
7 skipped qu.
13.
14. Using the rating scale below, please indicate how much you agree with the following statements
Answer Options Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Unsure Agree Strongly
Agree
Rating
Average
Response
Count
After receiving feedback on my draft outline I understand where I
needed to improve
2 5 8 56 19 3.94 90
After receiving feedback on my draft introduction I understand
where I needed to improve
1 7 10 51 21 3.93 90
After receiving feedback on my draft recommendations I understand
where I needed to improve
0 5 14 54 15 3.90 88
The teacher provided feedback that helped me understand the areas
I need to improve in regards to the report?
1 6 11 56 16 3.89 90
The feedback was very specific and I knew what I had to do to
improve
2 5 12 56 14 3.84 89
The feedback was received in a timely manner 1 6 10 63 10 3.83 90
After receiving feedback on my draft outline I understand what I did
well
0 6 11 55 18 3.94 90
After receiving feedback on my draft introduction I understand what I
did well
0 7 11 55 17 3.91 90
After receiving feedback on my draft recommendations I understand
what I did well
0 5 20 49 14 3.82 88
answered question 90
skipped question 10
15.
16.
17. Student Feedback
I actually want to reply use voice
recorder too, but I'm just not sure
how to reply using voice recorder. I
think that really interesting
technique of teaching. I like it, and I
can just listen while seeing my work
all in one time. :)
I think the audio feedback was very
useful Gemma, it helps me
understand better when i can
actually hear what i did wrong rather
than reading. The audio was easy to
understand, and I had no problems
listening to the audio file.
Personally i did not benefit from the
audio feedback at all. I am a local
student and i found it extremely
difficult to understand the audio
feedback that was given. So i will
assume international student would
of struggled even more. It was not
clear and i found very frustrating
trying to figure out what comments
connected to my text. I strongly
recommend not to use this feedback
approach in the future
it was very useful for me. I thank you
for that. I don't have any problem
with the audio feedback. It was easy
to understand and the explanation
was clear. I would preferred audio
feedback rather than written
feedback because its more easy to
understand that and it helps me to
improve my listening skills. Thanks
thank you - this is very useful
feedback and very positive
I received and listened your voice
feedback. I think it is better than
written feedback for me
18. Teacher’s
feedback
LOVED IT!! EASY TO USE MUCH FASTER WAY TO
PROVIDE FEEDBACK
MUCH MORE EXPLICIT
GREATER QUANTITY MORE POSITIVE MORE PERSONAL
19. Project
conclusions
The data confirms previous
research-Feedback Works
There is no significant
difference between audio
and written feedback- both
are effective NEW
Teachers LOVE audio
feedback
Students in this study still
prefer written feedback
NEW
Study focused on L2/ or pre-
tertiary students NEW
20. Reference List
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of American
Educational Research, 77 (1), 81-112.
Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P., & Wells, J. (2007). Using asynchronous feedback to
enhance teaching presence and student sense of community. Journal of
Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.
Lunt, T., & Curran, J. (2010). ‘Are you listening please?’ The advantages of
electronic audio feedback compared to written feedback. Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, 35 (7), 759-769.
Merry, S., & Orsmond, P. (2008). Students’ attitudes to and usage of academic
feedback provided via audio files. Bioscience Education, 11.
Morra, A.M., & Asis, M.I. (2009). The effect of audio and written teacher
responses on EFL student revision. Journal of College Reading and Learning,
39(2), 68-81.
21. Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the team that were part of
this research project here at the College:
• Renuka Pathmasuntharam
• Jocelyn Robinson
• Allan Mudford
• Lisa Paton
• Dr Ranjna Kapoor
In the abstract we summarized the results from our trial study- and today we are going to share with you the results of the full study.
The project comprised of n=116 students, 6 classes, and 5 different teachers.
Mixed design- because we were measuring results between two groups (audio and written)
And, measuring within each group with the pre- and post feedback
Ethical clearance: Students were sent an email explaining the purpose of the project and this email was also explained in class to ensure that any student questions could be dealt with or more clarification provided. Students were provided with the option to opt out of audio feedback at any stage throughout the project with no penalty. No students opted out!
We collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data.
Students submitted these components of the report in weeks 7, 8 and 9.
Written or audio feedback was given and returned within 4 days (?)
The full report was submitted in Week 11 and graded for the 3 components. This gave us the post feedback values.
For qualitative analysis students answered a questionnaire before they were handed back their graded reports.
n represents the number of students in each group
We have used the paired t-test to compare pre and post feedback grades.
The post feedback is significantly better than pre-feedback (note the asterisk) for all 3 components of the report EXCEPT for the written feedback for the Outline. However comparison of audio with written feedback for this component was not significantly different.
The same data is represented in histograms
All post feedback grades were significantly better than pre feedback grades EXCEPT for the Written Outline.
There was no significant difference between audio and written feedback.
Students were also asked to participate in a survey to provide feedback to us about what they thought about the process and also about the form of feedback they received.
The survey was set up using Survey Monkey and every student was sent the link to the survey-
84% participation rate is based on the entire cohort of 138 students signed up to the course.
Who answered the survey-
52 students who received audio answered the question
39 students who received written feedback answered the question
2 students said they never received any feedback (this is not true)
Have you ever received audio FB in other classes-
20 YES (20%)
64= NO (64%)
8 UNSURE
8 SKIPPED THE ?
This is interesting to note particularly when we look at what kind of feedback students said they preferred.
I THINK THE METHOD OF FEEDBACK THAT I RECEIVED WAS THE BEST METHOD OF FEEDBACK FOR ME. Interesting that almost 60% of the cohort agreed that they liked the form of feedback they received. Of course for the students that have never received audio feedback before- or in this study- it is actually difficult for them to say with any certainty whether this was the best form- hopefully this is represented by the 18% that are unsure- they are unsure because they are not the 20% who said they received audio feedback in other classes and they are not part of the 52% audio responders in the survey. However, as we go through some of the stats you will see that in the end the students make a completely different decision about what kind of feedback they would like.
Not going to spend long on this one- but just to quickly indicate that questions posed to students about whether they thought the feedback to each of the three draft assignments helped them to improve, as well as whether the feedback indicated what they did well, whether it was sent to them in a timely manner, whether the information was specific. As you can see from the red section the overwhelming majority of answers fall within the AGREE and STRONGLY AGREE columns. About 70% of students answered positively for each question asked. These results are confirmed by the quantitative data analysis- because both groups of students did show an improvement from their first draft to their final reports.
Both groups of students answered this set of questions- it is interesting to note that feedback that helped the students to complete the task was the key reason students liked the feedback-this really supports the idea that formative feedback is valuable and students see it as valuable with 50% of the students selecting this reason. So feedback that is relevant is what they most appreciate. Find out how many choices each student made- how many did they answer on average. Note that the personalized nature of the feedback was not even in the top four reasons-this is different to past research.
However, even though the feedback was positive and most of our respondents had received audio feedback- when asked which style of feedback they would prefer to receive in future the majority said they would prefer to receive written feedback over audio feedback. Why? We have some ideas as to this- some students did not like the audio feedback and emailed us to tell us what they thought of it:
1. because our students are ESL some of us in the group thought that this might be the case (I for one),
2. audio feedback also requires a high degree of interaction and responsibility from the learner-possibly not something that this cohort of students are prepared or familiar doing- makes it too difficult/ too much like hard work
4. Ideas that we discounted as being a barrier were voice pace/ accent etc. as the survey results indicated that students did not see that as a concern or problem
Our results contradict currently published research! BUT, OUR STUDY SAMPLE ARE OVERWHELMINGLY L2 AND NOT YET UNI. STUDENTS!
We need to dig deeper to find out why students would still prefer to receive written feedback even after they responded so positively to the questions.
Having the student voice as central to this initiative was important to us- these were comments provided in the other comments box in the survey.
Interesting that the majority are positive- even though the majority of students still said they would prefer written feedback.
Some points that the research reveals about audio feedback for students is:
-it reduces the social distance between teacher and student
-a sense of “being there”
-even disappointing feedback resulted in students wanting to follow up with the teacher
-personalisation fosters a greater sense of motivation in students
For the teachers the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The key reasons are outlined in this slide.
Key features is that when we speak, we use language that is much more everyday, much more accessible to our students. Whereas when we write as teachers and academics, we tend to slip into academic writing style and using academic phrases or symbols that are not always understood clearly by our students. We also used our student's names in almost every recording- this immediately gave it a sense of personalization that written comments cannot. Using voice also allows for the inclusion of tone and humour which is very difficult with writing.
But the significant factor was the time savings!
Research by Tom Lunt and John Curren 2010 published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education at London Metropolitan university revealed in their research that one minute of talking equals six minutes of writing with some studies showing a time savings of almost 75% (Ice et al. 2011). With increasing class sizes and the related marking load whilst at the same time ensuring we engage our students in a more personalised manner audio feedback could be a helpful tool.