Abstract
Students who were required to write three short essays for a university level course on photochemistry at the Open university of the Netherlands received either audio-cassette or written feedback on their essays. The students receiving the audio feedback described their experience as personal, enjoyable, complete and clear. Those receiving written feedback described their experience as adequate. The amount of time spent by instructors supplying the feedback differed minimally (Xaudio=53 minutes per student; Xwritten=49 minutes) with the major difference lying in the amount of time spent in preparation. This difference, possibly attributable to novelty with audio as a mode for feedback, was not significant. The amount communicated to the students with audio feedback (per instructor) was significantly greater than the amount communicated with written feedback. There was no difference in the final grades for the two groups of students.
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Paul A. Kirschner received his Masters in Educational Psychology from the State University of Amsterdam. He has worked as educational technologist at the Open university of the Netherlands since 1983, primarily with the faculties of Natural Sciences and Engineering. Henk van den Brink received his Masters in Educational Psychology from the State University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has worked at the Open university of the Netherlands since 1984 as an educational technologist, primarily with the Faculty of Economics. Marthie Meester received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the State University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has worked since 1983 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Open university of the Netherlands as course team chair for a number of undergraduate and graduate level chemistry courses.
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Kirschner, P.A., van den Brink, H. & Meester, M. Audiotape feedback for essays in distance education. Innov High Educ 15, 185–195 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00898030
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00898030