Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

“Focus on reading peers’ posts and engaging
in discussions to include more quality posts by
adding knowledge. You are doing a good job
in some of your posts giving us your original
thoughts. I would like to see you engaging more
with your peers by responding to their posts and
adding knowledge. If you disagree or agree, tell
us why; probe further. Great conversations and
quality content, as well as quantity (frequency of
engaging with your peers) CONSISTENTLY is
what I look for. Your contributions overall were
weak during the grading time frame. Thank you
for your reflective post. I will look for consistency
of quality and frequency of your engagement for
the reminding eight weeks to come. Thanks for
your efforts.”
These qualitative results confirm some of the
literature findings on feedback that it does vary in
depth, clarity and the degree of being constructive
towards learning for the student. This is further
confirmed by the findings outlined in the section
below, as there is a strong indication of e-feedback
influencing the level of social learning as well as
the influence on social development and growth
for the student.
Impact of Quality e-Feedback
on Student Personal Growth
and Development
This study also looked at email correspondence
of 10 online Organizational Behavior classes to
specifically observe if there were any signs indicating
that the type and degree of e-feedback given to
students by their facilitator had an impact on social
learning, personal growth and development.
After reading through the email correspondence,
there were numerous emails addressed to
the facilitator regarding to his or her e-feedback.
The following seven categories emerged (some
qualitative samples of student responses are given
for each):
8
The Impact of Quality E-Feedback as an Element of Social Learning Theory
1. Appreciation and Gratitude for
e-Feedback
◦ Thanks for your feedback to us on the
case analysis.
◦ Thank you very much for your time
and feedback on my case.
◦ I am deeply touched by your neatly
organized feedback on my case analysis.
I have read your feedback not less
than 10 times. I have never expected
that any guide tutor would give me
such a long a reply as you did for my
performance. I thank you for your
conscientious work and what you did
was beyond your responsibility.
◦ Thank you very much for the case
feedback and grading. It is much
more comprehensive.
2. High Value Ascribed to eFeedback
◦ Thank you very much for this very
valuablepiece of advice.
◦ Thanks once again for the valuable
guidance.
◦ Thanks for your valuable feedback. I
will remember to make my analysis
more complete in future
3. Aid to Learning and Improvement
◦ This feedback will certainly help me
in improving my skill in answering
case studies.
◦ I shall take your feedback and correct
myself as I progress in my course
◦ There has been great learning indeed.
4. Request for Continual e-Feedback
◦ I look forward to some illuminating
feedback, enlightening me to the quality
of my performance as I proceed.
◦ Kindly let me know so as to improve in
the future – HOW TO improve further.
◦ May I seek your feedback as to
whether my recent discussions are
in line with the course content and
expectations?