How am I going and where to next? Elaborated online feedback improves university students' self-regulated learning and performance

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of adaptive online feedback on self-regulated learning, motivation, and achievement. University students (N = 257) participated in an experimental field study with an intensive longitudinal design (daily assessment over 30 days). The experiment included a between-subject and a within-subject manipulation. The target of the feedback intervention was varied between subjects: Students either received (1) feedback on metacognitive aspects, (2) feedback on motivational aspects, (3) feedback on metacognitive and motivational aspects, (4) or no feedback. Within the three feedback groups, we additionally varied feedback content from day to day within-subjects. Students either received (1) informative feedback on self-regulated learning (2) directive feedback including only a strategy suggestion, (3) transformative feedback including feedback on self-regulated learning and a strategy suggestion, (4) or – on some days – no feedback. Results revealed that informative, directive, and transformative informative feedback reduced students' procrastination and improved daily self-monitoring, adherence to time schedules, and goal achievement compared to receiving no feedback. Informative and transformative feedback additionally improved planning strategies and concentration. Motivation and self-efficacy were unaffected by any kind of feedback. The positive effects of the intervention were most pronounced when students received feedback on metacognitive and motivational aspects. Moreover, students in the feedback groups achieved better grades in the examinations compared students in the control group. Together, results indicate that the feedback intervention effectively improved students' self-regulated learning and achievement. We discuss differential effectiveness of the feedback depending on feedback content.