Is video feedback more effective than written feedback?

As online multimedia options grow, instructors have more diverse and interactive choices to deliver feedback for student assignments. In this paper, the authors compare the effectiveness of using screen recording software to provide video feedback on programming assignments versus traditional written feedback. A Fundamentals of Programming class of 38 students was randomly divided into two groups. Throughout a 15-week semester, one group of students was exclusively given feedback via video and the other was exclusively given feedback via text. For the video feedback, the professor displayed the individual student program and discussed in detail any design or syntactical errors found in the code. For both groups, the authors tracked the scores on each assignment for each student, as well as the time it took to grade each assignment, which included video rendering time for the group receiving video feedback. A survey was also administered at the end of the semester to gather feedback from the students. The results of this study are analyzed and presented in order to determine which method is more effective. The results from the survey administered to the students who received the video feedback are also included.