McKay School of Education > News > Duane Lemley
MSE Scholars' Article Awarded the Elizabeth Powell Award
Duane Lemley
Lemley's study, assisted by a cohort consisting of MSE students, former students, and faculty, titled The Effects of Immediate and Delayed Feedback on Secondary Distance Learners was published in 2007 by the Quarterly Review of Distance Education.
Students who are taking high school independent study courses can choose either to take courses completely online, with texts, assignments, and assessments all given electronically, or to have the physical materials mailed to them. With both options the students are responsible for completing their assignments and examinations and submitting them for grading. Those who work completely online are given instant scores and feedback, while those who work through traditional mail services experience a few days delay.
"We put together two high school groups," said Lemley, "one from the web version, and the other from the paper version." The completely web-based system was labeled the "immediate feedback group," and the paper-based system was labeled as "delayed feedback group."
When the Independent Study office received assignments, quizzes, or exams from students designated for these groups, these materials were fed into a computer where they were instantly graded and assigned pre-designated feedback. "The immediate response group received the grade as well as pre-selected feedback without any wait," Lemley said, whereas the students in the delayed feedback group, those who ordered the paper version of the course, mailed in their assignments by normal mail. "So simply because of that turnaround time, there was a delay."
Lemley described the findings: "We compared the two, looking primarily at final exam grades, and found, not surprisingly, that the immediate feedback group did better, in some cases substantially better, than the delayed group." The effects of immediate feedback favorably affected the students.
"But what we found to our surprise," continued Lemley, "was that the delayed group finished their coursework faster than the immediate group. That was the revelation of the study."
"We in Independent Study are looking at similar concerns and research questions," basically to help us better serve the student clientele, make sure that we have things in place that are accessible [and] usable to every group," Lemley said, describing his future plans.
14 May 2008