Effects of learner choice over automated, immediate feedback

Background

Although computer-based formative assessment systems with automated feedback can effectively foster learning, such systems have been criticized for often lacking feedback-related choices.

Aims

This experiment aimed to investigate the benefits of introducing learner choices over feedback and students’ feedback-retrieval behavior when its retrieval is optional.

Method

160 undergraduates worked on a computer-based geometry assessment. They either received system-administered, immediate elaborated feedback (n = 80; system-administered group) or chose after each task whether they wanted to retrieve the feedback or not (n = 80; choice group). The assessment system tracked the time spent on the feedback, transfer performance, and feedback-retrieval behavior in the choice group, while students repeatedly rated their control-value appraisals and emotions. Data was analyzed with mixed-effects models.

Results

The choice option did not improve how students reacted to the feedback cognitively, emotionally nor motivationally but students in the choice group showed very high feedback-retrieval rates. Moreover, further analyses showed that feedback-retrieval rates declined with increasing item position and that the nonretrieval of feedback in the choice group was associated with a less pleasant emotional state compared to the system-administered feedback.

Conclusion

Data indicate that a task-level feedback choice may not substantially improve students’ reactions to the feedback itself, but that it may be worth further investigating the determinants and consequences of the (non)retrieval of feedback. Further, results imply that students have a strong behavioral tendency to choose task-level, elaborated feedback over no feedback; this has important implications for the design of assessments with feedback-related learner choices.