Evaluating the integration of Jing® screencasts in feedback on written assignments

The Open University is always keen to develop ways of enhancing feedback to students, since comments on assignments are a key aspect of the distance tuition process. Students traditionally receive detailed written feedback on their assignment scripts in the form of annotations and corrections as well as separate written comments summarising their overall performance. For foreign language speaking assignments, students also receive audio feedback in addition to written summary comments. Jing® [1], a free software tool, allows the recording of a five-minute video commentary of what is happening on a computer screen, i.e. to make a screencast. Jing® enables tutors to record themselves annotating and commenting on their students' scripts or to provide a presentation on an aspect of grammar relevant to the assignment. This presentation reports on both the student and tutor responses to the medium, as well as the nature of the feedback in terms of depth and focus.