Online Peer Feedback Research Articles

Cultivating Iranian IELTS Candidates’ Writing Skills through Online Peer Feedback: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry

Though peer feedback has gained noticeable attention in second-language (L2) education in face-to-face classes, its effects on improving IELTS candidates’ writing performance have remained unexplored in the Iranian EFL context. Thus, the present study aims to reach a two-fold purpose. First, it investigates the effects of online peer feedback (OPF) on improving Iranian IELTS candidates’ writing performance. Second, it explores what the IELTS candidates’ perceptions are about the efficacy of online peer feedback to cultivate their writing performance in the Iranian EFL context. To these aims, having been homogenized through the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), a total of 35 IELTS candidates were randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group. The two groups went through pretest, treatment, posttest, and delayed posttest procedures. To collect the required qualitative data, 5 participants of the experimental group participated in a focus group interview. The data were analyzed using a one-way ANCOVA and content analysis. Findings documented that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the posttest and delayed posttest. Additionally, the qualitative results revealed that the participants had positive attitudes toward the potentials of OPF to cultivate writing skills. The study ends with proposing a range of implications and suggestions for further research.

Creating an online community of inquiry: learner practice and perceptions of community-based feedback giving in academic writing

While the importance of the peer feedback in second or foreign language (L2 or FL) classrooms in higher education has been increasingly recognized, empirical research on discussing peer feedback literacy from the perspective of community-based academic writing is very much in its infancy. Informed by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this qualitative study aims to explore learners’ feedback practice and their perceptions of providing peer feedback in an online community-based academic writing task. The analysis was based on multiple sources of data (pre-task surveys, online community-based feedback entries, post-task stimulated recalls, in-depth group interviews, and follow-up WeChat interviews) from 31 Chinese undergraduates. The results indicated that although students provided feedback with different focuses, they valued online community peer feedback over traditional peer feedback for seeking affective appropriateness, facilitating social interaction, and seeking better practice. Additionally, students considered online community peer feedback practice could help with finding the reviewers’ own voices through different stages of reflective knowledge building processes, and transferring to subsequent revisions. This study provides pedagogical implications for how a community-based approach to online peer feedback can enhance students’ academic writing practice.

Public Speaking and Online Peer Feedback in a Blended Learning EFL Course Environment: Students’ Perceptions

This paper reports on a blended learning approach for public speaking in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The researcher implemented the course design through reduced weekly face-to-face class sessions and online student interaction using a speech video-based blog. Using a survey conducted at the end of the semester, multiple comments provided for online peer feedback, structured outlines submitted to Turnitin, and instructor’s weekly observation of the students’ presence and performance online, the researcher collected data about the students’ progressive learning of the public speaking skills, peer feedback, and the students’ assessment of each aspect pertaining to the blended learning experience. The qualitative analysis revealed the effectiveness of online peer feedback in public speaking skills development as demonstrated by students’ attainment of course intended learning outcomes, as well as an overall positive student perception towards the blended learning model, with minor reservation of less confident students at the onset of the online implementation phase. 

A Telecollaboration Project on Giving Online Peer Feedback: Implementing a Multilateral Virtual Exchange During a Pandemic

Telecollaboration, also called virtual exchange or online intercultural exchange, is a form of collaborative learning whereby language learners in different locations engage in computer-mediated communication to complete tasks online. There is ample evidence that telecollaboration promotes the acquisition of language skills, intercultural competence, and digital literacies. Challenges faced implementing virtual exchanges include differences in time zones, learning objectives, academic calendars, and cultural attitudes. The present article describes a case of a multilateral telecollaboration project based on the facilitated dialogue model involving four institutions—two in Europe and two in the United States—that was designed to prepare students for the experience of giving online peer feedback on collaborative writing assignments. Our initial goal was to explore the challenges students would face and the benefits they would receive from a complex telecollaboration project involving multiple institutions and two task sequences: 1) input and reflection on giving and receiving peer feedback, 2) completion of the collaborative writing task to be peer reviewed. However, new challenges and opportunities emerged after the switch to emergency e-learning and remote teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. Relying upon multiple data sources—including correspondence, observations, class discussions, surveys, reflective writing, and information stored in virtual learning environments—our methods of data collection involved convenience sampling, while data analysis was predominantly descriptive. Our results demonstrate that even during a global pandemic, students and instructors face similar logistical challenges and reap similar benefits as has been reported in the literature. Yet our experience also reveals the resiliency of telecollaboration in the face of extreme disruption as well as the potential to exploit virtual exchange to develop learning strategies—such as methods for giving and receiving peer feedback—and meta-awareness of how language is used in the real-world—such as the implications of English as a lingua franca.

A Review of Literature on the Potentials and Problems of Face-to-Face and Online Peer Feedback and the Patterns of Interaction among ESL/EFL Learners in a Peer Feedback Environment

A Review of Literature on the Potentials and Problems of Face-to-Face and Online Peer Feedback and the Patterns of Interaction among ESL/EFL Learners in a Peer Feedback Environment

Transpacific telecollaboration and L2 writing: Influences of interpersonal dynamics on peer feedback and revision uptake

Few existing studies have reported on how group dynamics relate to online peer feedback interactions and subsequent revisions in second/foreign language writing, with no such investigation in telecollaborative contexts in which partners alternate between roles of reader/writer, native/non-native speaker, and expert/learner. This study explored the ways that dyadic functioning was associated with the functions of reader/writer comments and feedback focus produced during synchronous interactions among dyads of a Korean-U.S. telecollaborative project and subsequent uptake of feedback in revisions. Grounded in qualitative and discourse analytic methods, findings indicated that depending on dyadic functioning levels, telecollaborative partners performed different reader and writer roles and addressed different aspects of L2 writing. How partners responded to and incorporated peer feedback into their revisions varied systematically by level of dyadic functioning. The findings highlight the jointly-constructed nature of the online interaction and revision uptake and suggest that interpersonal dynamics may be of greater significance than previously suggested. The findings may also help explain the variety of learner experiences documented in previous peer interaction research and may provide insights into how writing and feedback activities can be designed for better outcomes in this context.

EFL students’ voices on digital peer feedback

Education and technology have been tailed by some conditions. Some parts in education are technologized including peer feedback activity, but the use of peer feedback combined with e-learning needs to be reviewed in terms of its practical use. The affordance of technology has enabled peer feedback to take place online. Despite the potential benefits that online peer feedback may offer, there is a lack of studies on the topic. Therefore, this paper aims to explore students’ perspectives on the benefits of online peer feedback. This research was done qualitatively. Interview to six students of English Language Education Department was conducted to gain the data. The academic year 2018/2019. In selecting the participants, purposive sampling was applied. The finding of this study revealed that the use of technology particularly in giving peer feedback brought some benefits e.g., increasing students’ autonomy and reviving student’s critical thinking. Besides, the cons of this phenomenon were that students felt the activity ruined their energy to stay focused in front of the screen to give others a review. Some suggestions in the last part of this paper also appeared as the researchers respond to this phenomenon.

AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE PEER FEEDBACK TO FOSTER STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING

The aims of this study is to find out the students' responses to the practice of peer feedback in online learning and to investigate how online peer feedback foster students' critical thinking. In collecting the data, the study used qualitative method especially case study. Questionnaire and students' peer feedback documentations were the data collection. Purposive sampling was used to select twelve students as participants. Open ended questionnaire and students' peer feedback documentations were the data collection. The writer analysed the students’ responses to the implementation of online learning using percentage computation and interpreted it qualitatively. The students’ peer feedback documentations also analysed by using content analysis. The result indicated that using peer feedback in online learning could improve students’ critical thinking skills which was relevant with Bloom’s Taxonomy. In responding to the second research questions, there were six students who think critically that could be seen from how they criticized the peer’s assignment based on their ability to state opinions clearly and concisely. Moreover, the most of students agreed that the implementation of online peer feedback was more useful and helped them to improve their writing assignment through giving comments to peers and got comments from peers. Therefore, this research has proved that online peer feedback could foster students’ critical thinking and improved their writing skills especially in the subject Academic Writing.Keywords: Online, Peer feedback, Critical thinking

Online formative peer feedback in Chinese contexts at the tertiary Level: A critical review on its design, impacts and influencing factors

This critical review responds to an international call for research review on the mechanism by which online peer feedback (OPF) optimises learning effectiveness. The review focuses on the studies in Chinese contexts, with which OPF may appear culturally incompatible. The review analyses 28 empirical studies from 2010 to 2020 and found that (a) a clear pathway from specific OPF design elements to particular learning impacts has not yet established; (b) the impacts of OPF were mainly reported on domain-specific learning and as positive; and (c) four types of factors either enhanced or weakened the OPF impacts, namely socio-cultural, material, interpersonal, and individual factors. This critical review provides a valuable reference to identify research gaps concerning OPF mechanism and suggests practical ways to maximise the benefits of OPF for university students.

College Students' Experience in Online Asynchronous Peer Feedback in Writing

Writing is heavy, tedious, and difficult for college students. Likewise, writing instruction is equally arduous for teachers. The implementation of online and remote classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic becomes an opportunity for students to develop writing through their peers’ feedback. This study analyzes the college students’ experience and evaluation in online asynchronous peer feedback in writing. One hundred college students in free sections from a private university responded to an adopted, modified, and validated survey questionnaire and focus group discussions to evaluate and validate their experience in online asynchronous peer feedback in writing. The survey results underwent statistical analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20, to determine the weighted mean scores. Thus, the results revealed that the college students have a strong positive experience in online asynchronous peer-feedback in writing with the course facilitator of English language-based subjects. Though online asynchronous peer feedback in writing is an established learning approach, it is not yet maximized in all or most classes of college students. Nevertheless, the study concludes that the positive assumptions, experimentations, and explorations done in online peer feedback in writing remain valuable for college students, especially in their asynchronous writing development.

STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE PRACTICES OF ONLINE PEER- FEEDBACK IN EFL WRITING CLASS

Along with the development of educational technology, online peer feedback becomes an alternative in giving feedback. The flexibility in implementing the feedback makes it popular among the teachers. The activities in giving feedback can be practiced out of the classroom hours. However, the students may have different perspective on such practice. Listening to their voice will provide some insights in designing better online peer feedback. The findings of the present study reveals that the students perceive the practice of online peer feedback positively as it can improve their reading and writing skills. In addition, the practicality in utilizing the application can foster students’ motivation. Despite the fact that the accuracy of the feedback is not high, the practice of online feedback sparks students’ engagement in writing process.

What aspects of online peer feedback robustly predict growth in students’ task performance?

The value of online peer feedback in education has been widely established, and the use of online peer feedback tools is rapidly growing in practice. However, effect sizes appear to vary widely across studies, suggesting implementation details matter substantially. Further, there remain open questions about exactly which aspects of the multi-faceted peer feedback experience are most closely associated with learning outcomes. Within 13 different courses involving 2421 students, drawn across seven universities and six content disciplines, temporally lagged multiple-regression analyses were used to test the unique contributions of quantity, depth, and quality of received and provided comments to students’ growth in task performance across assignments. Meta-regression is applied to precisely estimating overall effect sizes and variation in effect sizes. Results reveal stronger relationships with growth in task performance for 1) provided rather than received comments, 2) longer rather than more comments, and 3) comments perceived to be helpful for revision. Further, there was largely quantitative and qualitative variation in observed relationships across courses that not attributable to statistical noise.

Exploring EFL Learners’ Comments on Web-Based Peer Feedback: Local and Global Revisions

The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the interactional commenting patterns that EFL learners produced in web-based peer feedback and correlate them with the learners’ writing achievement. The study employed a quasi-experimental design built on the Theory of Cognitive Apprenticeship (Collins, 1991), which gives emphasis on coaching (local revision) and scaffolding (global revision) processes. The context of the study was in a public university in Oman and 50 participants were involved in a selected range of online peer-feedback processes, synchronously and asynchronously. A paired samples t-test showed that students were able to improve their grammar range and accuracy in writing essays more than other scaling categories (e.g. content and organization). The results of the qualitative analysis indicated that students produced far more comments synchronously than asynchronously, and most of the students’ exchanges were on forms. The findings of this study could be a practical reference for those who plan to cultivate the use of technology in peer feedback practice. 

The Effects of Online Feedback on ESL/EFL Writing: A Meta-Analysis

Online feedback is frequently implemented during second/foreign language (SL/FL) writing tasks and assessments. This meta-analysis investigates the effectiveness of online feedback in SL/FL writing. After careful screening and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, this study synthesizes the results of 17 primary studies reporting on students’ English SL/FL writing quality after online feedback. The studies involved 1568 students, and the results indicate a Hedges’ g effect size of 0.753 for the effectiveness of written feedback in general. Online feedback from teachers/instructors produces a larger effect size (g = 2.248) than online peer feedback (g = 0.777) and online automated feedback (g = 0.696). It was also found that educational levels and task genre mitigate the impact of online feedback on writing quality. Overall, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the impact of online feedback on ESL/EFL writing and provide insights into online ESL/EFL writing instruction.

Online peer feedback on video presentations: type of feedback and improvement of presentation skills

Peer feedback can be a tool to help higher education students develop presentation skills. This process can be supported by using online tools that enable peers to provide feedback annotated to specific moments in the presentation. The current paper investigated whether providing and receiving peer feedback using an online tool was related to improvement in students’ presentation skills, whether students provided different peer feedback in comments and annotations, and whether student characteristics played a role in students’ presentation skill improvement. Results from 56 second-year undergraduate Education and Child Studies students indicate that providing and receiving feedback did not relate to students’ improvement in presentation skill, and that high ability students showed less improvement in presentation skills than medium and low ability students did.

Raising students’ audience awareness for oral presentation through online role-reversal

This study aimed to investigate how college students, who studied English as a Foreign Language (EFL), enhanced their audience awareness through online role-reversal to improve oral presentation. Twenty-eight college students volunteered to participate in a speaking training class. They underwent four phases of online role-reversal, peer modeling, peer feedback, peer assessment, and reflections on their scripts for better oral presentation. Data collected included the log files of online role-reversal, students’ first and final scripts, the evaluation rubric of presentation, and an open-ended questionnaire. Results showed that online role-reversal played a key role in raising the students’ audience awareness between presenters and audience, leading to oral presentation improvement. Specifically, the active students outperformed the passive students in the dimensions of content, logical structure, delivery manners, and interaction with peers. The active students experienced online role-reversal to a greater extent and produced better quality final scripts and oral presentations while the passive students made very few revisions on errors of content and structure. They merely copied peers’ feedback for grammatical corrections. This study suggests that students are engaged in online role-reversal to negotiate meaning, deal with difficulties, and reflect on their scripts to enhance audience awareness and consequently improve their oral presentation.

Student satisfaction with use of an online peer feedback system

We contribute to the growing evidence of the positive effect of use of online peer feedback tools on students’ teamwork skills development. We do so by exploring individual and contextual factors underlying satisfaction with using a peer feedback system alongside team projects. Employing path analytical framework and bootstrap methods, we analysed data from an international sample of 100 project teams in management studies. Drawing on procedural justice theory, we theorised and found support that students’ uncertainty avoidance orientation and virtuality in collaboration were positively related to their satisfaction with use of a peer feedback system. Such satisfaction in turn allowed them to be more effective team members. Our findings provide evidence for higher education institutions and instructors considering the adoption of online peer feedback systems alongside teamwork in their curricula. Specifically, peer feedback appears to be effective in the development of teamwork skills and students appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback to their peers in a structured and dedicated environment. Our findings are timely and of important practical significance as educational institutions increasingly rely on the use of computer-mediated technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tracing the Path Toward Self-Regulated Revision: An Interplay of Instructor Feedback, Peer Feedback, and Revision Goals.

Building upon Zimmerman’s socio-cognitive view of self-regulation, we explored EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ revision and the likely contribution to revision from three salient self-regulating sources: peer feedback, instructor feedback, and revision goals. Data was obtained from 70 Chinese EFL students in a writing class through a 300-word online writing assignment involving online instructor and peer feedback, free-response revision goals, and a required revision. We closely coded students’ revision and then used the same coding scheme to analyze the relative levels of association of revision changes with peer comments, instructor comments and revision goals. We found that: (a) the majority of revision changes have been triggered by three mediating sources, with revision goals as the most significant contributing source. Additionally, most revision changes come from a combination of two or three sources, with the overlap of peer feedback and revision goals accounting for the biggest overlapping contribution for both high and low-level revisions; (b) as for the relationship among the three sources, no significant difference was found between revision goals’ overlap rate with peer feedback and their overlap rate with instructor feedback. Instructor feedback and peer feedback did not overlap very much. Findings suggest that students could revise beyond instructor and peer feedback in their revision efforts guided by their own reflective goals, and peer feedback could function as a more productive and multiple-reader source of revision in comparison with instructor feedback. This study also provided evidence for students’ self-regulated learning of writing through the use of self-regulating resources and charted a route for how writing could be improved.

Peer feedback or peer feedforward? Enhancing students’ argumentative peer learning processes and outcomes

AbstractThis study compared the effects of support for peer feedback, peer feedforward and their combination on students’ peer learning processes, argumentative essay quality and domain‐specific learning. Participants were 86 BSc students who were randomly divided over 43 dyads. These dyads, in a two‐factorial experimental design, were assigned to four conditions including: peer feedback (n = 22), peer feedforward (n = 22), mixed (n = 20) and control group (n = 22) conditions. An online peer feedback environment named EduTech was designed which allowed us to implement various types of support in the form of question prompts. In this online environment, students were asked to write an argumentative essay on a controversial topic, to engage in peer learning processes and to revise their essay. Overall, the results showed that students in the three experimental conditions (peer feedback, peer feedforward and their combination) benefited more than students in the control group condition (without any support) in term of peer learning processes, argumentative essay quality and domain‐specific learning. However, there was no significant difference among the three experimental conditions. This implies that peer feedforward can be as important as peer feedback in collaborative learning environments which is often neglected both in theory and practice. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic? Writing argumentative essays is a common practice for higher education students in various disciplines which deal with controversial issues. Writing argumentative essay requires solid argumentation strategies which makes it a challenging task for higher education students. Additional instructional support is needed to help students write high‐quality argumentative essays. What this paper adds? Peer learning is a promising instructional strategy for improving students’ argumentative essay writing and learning. Online support in the form of question prompts to guide students during peer learning can improve their argumentative essay writing and learning. Next to the peer feedback, peer feedforward is also a promising instructional approach to support students’ argumentative essay writing and learning. Implications for practice and/or policy Given the positive effects of peer learning processes, the use of peer feedback and peer feedforward should be given more attention by teachers to support students write high‐quality argumentative essays for controversial issues. Teachers and educational designers should not only provide opportunities for students to engage in peer feedback processes (how I am doing?) but also in peer feedforward processes (where to next?).

Students’ perceptions of the peer-feedback experience in MOOCs

ABSTRACT Various studies advocate training students prior to a peer-feedback activity to ensure high quality of feedback. Next to investing in students’ peer-feedback skills, it is important to focus on the underlying perceptions since perceptions influence learning behavior. We implemented an online peer-feedback training session in a massive open online course and examined students’ perceptions of peer-feedback and training focusing on their willingness, perceived usefulness, perceived preparedness, and general attitude; and students’ peer-feedback experience and its relation to their perception. Analysis of a perception survey from 259 students revealed that the amount of prior experience results in significant differences in students’ perception. Students without prior peer-feedback experience scored higher on willingness, usefulness, preparedness, and general attitude compared to students with some prior experience. Those with a lot of experience showed the strongest positive perception scores. No significant differences for the effect of training on perception could be measured with the available data.