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Meaningful Feedback Systems in Blended Learning #1359

Feedback systems in language education are most commonly known for their remedial functions (e.g., written corrective feedback), but can assume more dynamic roles when students have more opportunities to meaningfully contribute to the process. This presentation examines several feedback systems situated as linchpins of the learning process in a one-semester blended learning (online and face-to-face) English course at a Japanese university. One system used traditional written corrective feedback on individually accessed on-demand tasks as a scaffold for pair-based communicative tasks performed in subsequent face-to-face lessons. A second system encouraged students to help guide teachers to improve and refine online content with a short turnaround time between collection of feedback and implementation. Other systems worked in conjunction with these two to provide a range of opportunities for students to become more involved with assessment-for-learning. Survey data collected at the end of the semester indicated that students strongly agreed with the appropriateness of feedback provided in this course. Takeaways of this presentation include a brief review of literature feedback in higher education and language learning, outcomes of the current feedback systems, templates (Microsoft Excel) for implementing similar feedback systems in other contexts, and suggestions for further readings.