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The Role of Feedback in Enhancing Students’ Learning Experience: An Evaluation of Student Perspectives and Attitudes

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 4

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44480

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44480

Download Count

190

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Paper Authors

biography

Rania Al-Hammoud University of Waterloo

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Rania Al-Hammoud is a lecturer and the current associate chair of undergraduate studies at the civil & environmental engineering department at university of waterloo. Dr. Al-Hammoud has a civil engineering background with research focusing on materials and the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures. She also has passion for engineering education and has published widely in this area. She cares about the success and well-being of her students, thus always being creative with the teaching methods in the classroom.

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biography

Ona Egbue University of South Carolina, Upstate

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Ona Egbue is an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics and Engineering Systems at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She received her PhD from Missouri University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include socio-technical system analysis, critical infrastructure resilience, modeling of energy systems, decision making for complex systems, and engineering education.

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Abstract

Feedback is a key element in the development of students’ understanding and evolution in their learning process. Students receive feedback in so many forms; peer feedback; critiques; instructor feedback: graded or ungraded; external feedback from employers or other industries, etc. For this feedback to be valuable, students need to appreciate it, act on it and consider it as part of the learning process. The literature shows that there is a discrepancy between what instructors target with this feedback and how the students perceive it for their learning improvement. Mostly, students tend to focus on grades rather than reflect on the feedback and take actions to improve their learning. Even when instructors give detailed personalized comments in students’ delivered work, the students may not reflect and take actions unless the reflection is part of the grading process.

This paper conducts a review of the different types of feedback students receive in their undergraduate studies in five different programs: architectural engineering, civil engineering, engineering technology management, environmental engineering and geological engineering. In addition, a survey is administered to students to understand feedback techniques used in engineering undergraduate programs. In the survey, students reflect on the types of feedback they received, and indicate which types of feedback they believe are most effective in their learning development. The survey also evaluates how the perception of effectiveness of the type of feedback is influenced by demographic factors. This paper discusses the first stage of the research project. The next stage includes developing an information session for students that is informed by the survey results and the literature. The information session aims at providing students an understanding of how to utilize different types of feedback. Students will then be interviewed a year later to determine if their perception of feedback and how they use it has changed.

Al-Hammoud, R., & Egbue, O. (2023, June), The Role of Feedback in Enhancing Students’ Learning Experience: An Evaluation of Student Perspectives and Attitudes Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44480

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