Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of the online tutor (OT) and teacher-led (TL) corrective feedback on the EFL university students’ writing performance, self-efficacy beliefs, and course perceptions within a collaborative online learning system.

An experimental OT group and a traditional TL group, with a total of 102 undergraduate students majoring in nursing, 14 online tutors, and a writing teacher, participated in this study during the fall semester of 2012. Three data collection instruments, including a scale for rating composition tasks, writing self-efficacy questionnaire, and course satisfaction questionnaire, were used. Quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics and ANCOVA, and qualitative data were coded with content analyses.

Results revealed that the students in the TL group demonstrated greater improvements than those receiving OT in terms of holistic writing skills and the sub-scales of content, organization, grammar, and mechanic. However, the self-efficacy beliefs of the OT group showed a significant improvement than the TL group after the writing instruction. The perceptions of the OT and TL group learners and the manner in which they adopted strategies for the course were discussed, too.

Keywords:

e-learning, online tutor, written corrective feedback, pedagogy, teaching and learning strategies.