Can AI feedback stand alone for fostering students’ presentation performance? A comparison of AI-only versus teacher-supported AI feedback

Abstract

Studies have shown the potential of automated feedback for supporting students’ presentation skills in Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) environments. However, the extent to which students can independently uptake AI feedback messages, or whether they need teacher support in this task, remains unclear. This experimental study aims to investigate the impact of AI feedback without (AI-only) and with teacher support (teacher-supported AI feedback), received after presentation practice in IVR, on students’ presentation performance (i.e. presentation skills, perceptions of the presentation, and anxiety) and perceptions of the feedback utility. A total of sixty undergraduate students participated. Students’ presentation skills, perceptions, and anxiety were measured using rubrics and questionnaires. The results revealed no significant differences between the two conditions, implying that AI-only feedback can be as effective as teacher-supported AI feedback for supporting students’ presentation performance in IVR. Additionally, no significant difference was established between conditions for students’ perceptions of the feedback utility. These findings suggest that students highly valued AI-only feedback and perceived it as an independent source of feedback for presentation performance within IVR. This study contributes to the existing AI feedback literature and advances our understanding regarding the use of AI as an independent feedback source in supporting student learning.