Design, Development and Evaluation of Learning Effects of Online Student-Generated Questions with Feedback

Engaging students in practice directly related to the learning objectives, followed up by feedback to student performance, has been suggested as one of the most powerful components in the learning process. While the potential of a student-generated questions approach (SGQ) has been well recognized, and both theoretical bases and empirical evidence supporting SGQ’s learning effects are solid, effects that may accrue from having students further engage in generating feedback in response to answers to the generated questions (i.e., justification for the correct answer and explanation for the incorrect responses) have yet to be fully explored and understood, neither are learning systems to support such activities. Under the premise of student-generated content and maker subculture, the potential and learning effects of engaging students in generating feedback corresponding to answers to online SGQ serve as the focal point of this three-year project. Explicitly, the purposes of this three-year project are two-folds: first, to design, develop and evaluate a SGQ system with feedback-generation; and two, to establish an empirical basis for the learning effects of associated designs revolving around the multimedia capability of computer technologies and the popularized notions of web 2.0 technology (e.g., user as contributor, the right to remix). Explicitly, an existing online system will be extended by (a) including a new question format (i.e., SGQ with feedback-generation), (b) establishing an online database with copyright-protected multi-media files for feedback-generation, (c) building an online scaffolding framework for feedback-generation with customizable prompts and examples/non-examples, and (d) strengthening the interface for the import and export of various questions sources to support related online activities. Following twelve one-to-one formative evaluation studies and one applicability study conducted in the 1st year, four empirical studies will be conducted in the 2nd and 3rd years to examine: 1. The comparative effects of online SGQ with feedback-generation of multimedia and text-based content; 2. The comparative effects of student-generated feedback for the respective options of online peer-generated, teacher-generated, and self-generated multiple-choice questions; 3. The comparative effects of online SGQ with feedback plus D&P, online SGQ with feedback, and online D&P; 4. The comparative effects of different sources of feedback (teachers versus students) to answers to multiple-choice questions during online D&P. The four studies conducted in the 2nd and 3rd years will adopt a mixed methods research design with a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design to assess the comparative effects of different instructional arrangements, qualitative research method to reveal students’ views, and/or content analysis of student-generated feedback. Each empirical study will take place for two to three months in classroom setting. Inferential statistics (i.e., t-tests, chi-square tests, regression analysis, ANCOVA, MANCOVA), content analysis, and constant comparative method will be adopted deemed appropriate for the respective studies. In sum, in this project, the applicant aims to examine the role of ‘student-generated feedback’ in the learning process as well as the interplay of SGQ, student-generated feedback, and D&P activities, and how feedback-generation can be designed and integrated to augment online SGQ activities for deep and rewarding learning experience.