Investigation of the Effect of Formative Peer and Instructor Feedback in Asynchronous Online Learning Environment

Abstract

The role of feedback in online education has recently become a topic of interest. This study looked at the effects of formative feedback generated by instructor and peers in asynchronous online learning environment. The research questions are as follows: (i) how did undergraduate students perceive peer and instructor feedback? (ii) to what extent did peer and instructor feedback affect undergraduate students' performance? The study was conducted with a mixed method. It was completed in 10 weeks with 76 undergraduate students. The task was to write a report after reviewing education research on current instructional technology. Data were collected through rubrics and questionnaires. It was observed that students attach more importance to instructor feedback than peer feedback. Peer feedback was generally found to be important, yet students with different perspectives and negative evaluation results were reported. Students stated useful to be an assessor and reported progress in understanding the criteria of an assignment, learning the topic, or writing a report on the topic. Peer feedback can provide meaningful and valuable results. On the other hand, this task can become dysfunctional when not done properly by peers. Future research may focus on strategies to improve the quality of peer feedback. A dialogue process can be operated on peer feedback, and preparatory education on feedback types and providing can be included.