Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice.

Assistant Professor Georgios Palaiologos
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies,
Department of International Business

Introduction

Feedback is a fundamental issue on the improvement in learning.(Sadler, 1989;

Kluger & DeNisi, 1996)This issue is usually interrelated with assessments practices
in a lot of educational institutions(UoL,2008) or can be seen as fundamental in
educational process(Nichol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).

According to Black and Wiliam(1998:47)'the two concept of formative assessment

and of feedback overlap strongly...Because of its centrality in formative assessment'.
Therefore it is very useful to investigate not only the feedback as such but especially
its relationship with the assessment process and in particular the formative part of
it.

Some Theoretical Considerations on Feedback and Formative Assessment.

According to Ramaprasad(1982:4, cited in Black and Wiliam, 1998: 48) 'Feedback is
information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a
system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way'. They imply that
between objectives of learning that usually set in the assessment criteria differ with
the final performance or understanding of the learners. This creates the 'gap' that is
recognised as the unit of analysis for the feedback concept.
Black and Wiliam(1998:48) recognise four 'elements' of the feedback system:
data on the actual level of some measurable attitude
data on the reference level of that attitude
a mechanism for comparing the two levels and generating information about
the gap between the two levels

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.
 Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

a mechanism by which the information can be used to alter the gap

Sadler(1989) identifies three conditions of 'effective' feedback: a. The knowledge of

standards, b. The necessity to compare these standards to ones own work, and c.
Taking action to close the gap. Kluger & DeNisi(1996) call that 'feedback-standard
discrepancy'.
While Graham et al (2001) identify particularly for online education two kinds of
feedback a.'information feedback' and 'acknowledgment feedback'. We recognize
the information feedback as closer to the expectations of formative and summative
assessment, while acknowledgment feedback has nothing to do with the content of
the learning impetus but rather with the process. So the first can be 'an answer to a
question, or an assignment grade and comments' while the latest 'confirms that
some event has occurred'.(ibid).
There is a downgrade of the volume of such informational feedback during the
duration of the semester, in such a pattern that 'the frequency of responses
decreased' . Obviously the time constraints that exist can be greater overpassed by
shifting from personal to 'whole' feedback from the side of instructor. While the
acknowledgment feedback is mostly absent. These facts can demotivate students
participation(ibid)
Ramaprasad(1982:4, cited in Black and Wiliam, 1998: 48) emphasize on the gap
existence per se and the use of information gained to 'alter the gap' in order to gain
the benefits of the feedback. In same trend and manner Huxham(2007) brings
arguments about when a feedback is not so constructive and contributive to
learning. So he suggests four basic parameters: 'a. Ambiguity and opacity, b.
Negativity c. Lateness and d. Uncertainty about criteria and contexts. We recognize
also that those parameters can have a negative impact on retention'.
Our basic assumption on this article is that feedback is strongly associated with the
process of mainly formative assessment and both are contributing to the
advancement of knowledge. Yorke(2001) agrees that 'formative assessment is a
crucial component of student learning' and he concludes that this also contributes
to student retention as such. Castelfranchi(2002, cited in Salmon, 2004:40) agrees
also that 'supportive, formative feedback is motivational and will contribute to

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.
 Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

modification of participants' thinking.'

UoL(2008) recognizes in its Assessment Code three levels of assessment:

diagnostic: assessment which provides an indicator of a learners aptitude

and preparedness for a programme of study and identifies possible
learning problems;
formative: designed to provide learners with feedback on progress and
inform development, but does not contribute to the overall assessment;
summative: provides a measure of achievement or failure made in respect
of a learners performance in relation to the intended learning outcomes of
the programme of study.
It is obvious that in our UoL example and other institutions, feedback is an integral
part of formative assessment and has also to do with quality of education. In some
cases has been formalized also at the accreditation level and has to do in the long
run with students' acceptance in working environments. Hence, Sadler(1989)
suggests that Formative assessment is concerned with how judgments about the
quality of student responses (performance, pieces, or works) can be used to shape
and improve the students competence by short-circuiting the randomness and
inefficiency of trial-and-error learning.

While Salmon(2004:40) explains that E-moderators should celebrate, give value to

and acknowledge contributions to discussion processes and knowledge sharing by
participants, and give credibility and verification of information offered.
Summative feedback and assessment can be introduced at stage three, especially if
aligned with the online process and achievements.

Finally Boston(2002)notes that feedback as part of formative assessment can

contribute on how to achieve better their 'desired goals', can get comment on
'errors' and 'improvements', and have their attention on the 'task' and not on getting
the right 'answer'. Same author but other contributors like Nichol and Macfarlane-
Dick (2006) believe that the feedback provided in formative assessment can interact
and provide 'self-evaluation' and 'self-regulated learning'. In that discussion is

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.
 Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

evident the distinction between 'internal feedback' that refers to the 'self-regulatory'
actions and 'external' feedback that refers to teachers, peers etc. Under those
assumption she came up to conclude seven principles of good feedback practice
that can be seen also as strong motivators:
1. helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);
2. facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection) in learning;
3. delivers high quality information to students about their learning;
4. encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;
5. encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;
6. provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired
performance;
7. provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the
teaching.(Nichol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006)

There is further area of development in the field since mos of the concepts are new
to the e-learning paradigm. Specifically the use of new technological inputs and
new methods of delivery should recognize more highways of feedback
contributions in even a fuzzy manner.

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.
 Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

References

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Boston, C. (2002). The concept of formative assessment. Practical Assessment,

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Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.
 Monograph presented at University of Liverpool, E-Facilitator Webinar Proceeding's (13 Nov - 20 Dec 2008)

28, Issue 1, pp. 4-13.

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http://www.liv.ac.uk/tqsd/pol_strat_cop/cop_assess/cop_assess.doc

Feedback and Formative Assumptions: Motivating your E-Learning Practice

by Georgios Palaiologos, 2008(Assistant Professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of
International Business) is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Korea License.