How do Academics Experience Use of Recorded Audio Feedback in Higher Education? A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Our Work in Progress Paper in Research to Practice Category focuses on use of recorded audio feedback (RAF) in higher education. RAF is one method for providing feedback that is becoming increasingly popular, especially in e-education. According to previous studies, most learners have an overall positive attitude towards RAF. However, many of the studies have been carried out from learners’ point of view. To complement RAF research, we study how academics experience use of RAF as a feedback method. We adopted a qualitative content analysis approach, applying thematic network analysis to the data received from four case academics. This approach proposes graphical networks as an aid for analyzing and synthesizing qualitative data into basic, organizing and global themes. The thematic network analysis produced two global, nine organizational and 45 basic themes. The two global themes were named “Dialogue diversification” and “Load reduction”. Based on our analysis, academics can, by using RAF, provide learners more relaxed and dialogic feedback and reduce their own workload both mentally and physically.