Assessing the effectiveness of video feedback in the computing field

Engineering students exhibit a wide array of learning styles across the perception, input, organization, processing, and understanding dimensions. To improve students performance in the classroom, many techniques have been developed to address these variances. The computing fields, however, tend to have a large percentage of students who are visual learners. These students learn best by seeing, and they can perform very well in the classroom with the appropriate usage of teaching styles. However, when it comes to providing feedback to students on submitted assignments, the main method employed is the written comment, which is not conducive to visual learners. This method is most prevalent in the academic community because overall, it is the simplest form of feedback that a faculty member can provide to students. However, written feedback is often highly ineffective at improving student performance, as many students simply do not read the comments because the students feel they are not relevant to their performance. This paper presents an assessment of an alternative method for providing feedback to students: video feedback. In lieu of written feedback, students are provided feedback for software engineering exercises through the use of a short video made via video capture. The video captures in multimedia format the instructors perceptions and actions when grading a given assignment. The video includes both aural commentary as the assignment is assessed, as well as dynamic visuals of the grading process, demonstrating failures and improvements that can be made in the submitted assignment. The article describes the pedagogical foundation for the technique, specifics of the technique used, student perceptions of the technique, and an assessment of the learning gains from using such a method in a junior level class. In general, students are show to prefer the technique versus traditional grading, and an improvement in overall outcomes for the course is shown to exist as well.