A framework for computerized progress feedback in tertiary education

Abstract

The dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994 has resulted in challenges in many fields, especially in education. University enrolment rates are high and the output quality of school learners in general is delicate which threatens the graduate quality of tertiary institutions. Contrary to rising student enrolments, the attrition rates have not improved. One contributing factor is the lack of comprehensive insight into students' academic performance throughout the course of a program. New systems are being developed and implemented in both online and on-campus programs and can be utilized to improve student performance feedback. Prior studies served to identify the ideal elements, models and concepts necessary to develop a framework for academic progress feedback in the tertiary education environment. In this paper, a model-based academic progress feedback framework is proposed to improve learning. The framework was implemented in a case study at a South African university and evaluated using a survey. The framework was readily accepted by the end-users and conformed to the features and requirements identified in literature.