Abstract:

The increased demand for online education has implications for the feedback that teachers offer their learners. As teachers are required to spend more time responding to their learners’ online questions, comments and contributions, the type and frequency of feedback becomes increasingly important. Asking for clarification, using questions to mediate thinking and assessing value and potential in student thinking, are all types of feedback that support learning. While teaching presence in online settings – the strategies used by teachers to facilitate a positive learning environment for student learning – is fairly well researched, relatively little is known about the types of teacher feedback provided in online learning and students expectations of this feedback. Thus, the purpose of this study is to compare teacher feedback in an online graduate course with student expectations of the same feedback. Data were collected using transcripts of teacher feedback and an online student questionnaire. This paper reports some current findings and discusses prospects for future research. The study is part of an ongoing study investigating online teaching for the purposes of understanding and enhancing online practice.

Keywords:

Online teaching, feedback, student learning.