I-FEEDBACK: ENHANCING ONLINE WRITING INSTRUCTION AND FEEDBACK THROUGH AUDIO-VISUAL COMMENTARY

Online learning has undergone exponential growth within the last 15 years, which has resulted in more students taking freshman composition courses online than ever before. One of the significant trends in postsecondary education in general, and in online education in particular, is the high number of nontraditional students pursuing higher education. However, high enrollment in online courses and degree programs is coupled with higher attrition rates and lower course satisfaction among online students when compared to onsite students, which suggests that the needs of online and nontraditional students are not being adequately met by online postsecondary institutions.

The rapid increase in online learning programs has also led to an increase in the number of students taking composition courses online, so there is a need to develop teaching practices and approaches to feedback designed specifically for online learning environments. One way of developing such practices is by using Web 2.0 tools that allow for streamlined sharing of digital audio and video content. Using transactional distance theory and the community of inquiry (CoI) model, the presenter will show how the affordances of Web 2.0 tools that facilitate audio-visual commentary have the potential to reduce transactional distance, increase cognitive and teaching presence, and increase student course satisfaction in online composition courses.