Effectiveness of Type of Feedback and Frequency on Digital Game-Based L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

The frequency of word exposure in teaching materials, along with corrective feedback, has often been identified as a powerful variable in the learning of vocabulary in a foreign language. The effect of the number of times an action is presented as accurate in digital game-based language learning scenarios (i.e., knowledge of correct response [KCR] feedback) however remains under-investigated. This study aims to analyse the learning of L2 mobile operating system terminology by a group of students of English as a foreign language by using the data collected by the video game The Conference Interpreter in order to identify the predictive strength of term frequency (times a term is shown), KCR feedback (times a correct answer is provided), and corrective feedback (times a term is shown as incorrect) regarding short and long-term L2 vocabulary learning. The regression analysis performed showed that the factor ‘KCR feedback' may be a positive predictor of short-term vocabulary learning, whereas the other factors seemed to have no statistical effect at any significant level.

Item-level monitoring, response style stability, and the hard-easy effect

Cognitive and metacognitive processes during learning depend on accurate monitoring, this investigation examines the influence of immediate item-level knowledge of correct response feedback on cognition monitoring accuracy. In an optional end-of-course computer-based review lesson, participants (n = 68) were randomly assigned to groups to receive either immediate item-by-item feedback (IF) or no immediate feedback (NF). Item-by-item monitoring consisted of confidence self-reports. Two days later, participants completed a retention test (IF = NF, no significant difference). Monitoring accuracy during the review lesson was low, and contrary to expectations was significantly less with immediate feedback (IF < NF, Cohen’s d = .62). Descriptive data shows that (1) monitoring accuracy can be attributed to cues beyond actual item difficulty, (2) a hard-easy effect was observed where item difficulty was related to confidence judgements as a non-monotonic function, (3) response confidence was predicted by the Coh-Metrix dimension Word Concreteness in both the IF and NF treatments, and (4) significant autocorrelations (hysteresis) for confidence measures were observed for NF but not for IF. It seems likely that monitoring is based on multiple and sometimes competing cues, the salience of each relates in some degree to content difficulty, but that the stability of individual response styles plays a substantive role in monitoring. This investigation shows the need for new applications of technology for monitoring multiple measures on the fly to better understand SRL processes to support all learners.

The Impact of Guided Metacognitive Feedback on Novice Programmers Using Learning by Teaching Environment

Learning-by-teaching is a powerful approach that enhances students to think deeply, orally and repeatedly. Several computer-based systems have been implemented where students play the teacher role and virtual agents play the tutee role. The existing systems focus on various domains, but none of them has considered programming problem solving. Additionally, the majority of these systems did not provide metacognitive support. They only focus on providing feedback as correct answers, and this type of feedback is called knowledge of correct response. However, this paper explores the influence of guided metacognitive feedback on novice programmers in a teachable agent environment. For that, a computer-based learning environment is built to enable the novice programmers to teach programming problem solving to an animated agent. It combines learning-by-teaching technique and metacognitive support in order to assist those beginners to acquire comprehensive learning on how to solve unfamiliar problems and prepare those programmers for future learning tasks. We conduct an experiment to compare the effect of the aforementioned feedbacks on the novice programmers’ performance in learning-byteaching paradigm. The results show that the metacognitive feedback has positive effect on novice programmers’ achievement of solving problems. In addition, providing metacognitive feedback as explicit feedback in learning-by-teaching paradigm improves the novices' abilities to estimate what they know and what they do not know about how to solve new programming problems.

The effectiveness of methods for providing written feedback through a computer-based assessment for learning: a systematic review

This study reviews literature regarding the effectiveness of different methods for providing written feedback through a computer-based assessment for learning. In analysing the results, a distinction is made between lower-order and higherorder learning. What little high-quality research is available suggests that students could benefit from knowledge of correct response (KCR) to obtain lower-order learning outcomes. As well, elaborated feedback (EF) seems beneficial for gaining both lower-order and higher-order learning outcomes. Furthermore, this study shows that a number of variables should be taken into account when investigating the effects of feedback on learning outcomes. Implications for future research are discussed.