The Influence of Immediate Homework Feedback on Student Performance and Satisfaction in an Engineering MOOC

Computer-graded questions in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide an opportunity for learners to receive immediate feedback on their homework assessments. This paper presents a test conducted on 3.032.2x: Mechanical Behavior of Materials: Beams, Stress Transformations, Columns, and Cellular Materials, a MOOC offered by MITx on edX, to examine the influence of immediate feedback on student performance, retention, and satisfaction. Students who received immediate feedback on all of their homework assignments were compared to students who received delayed feedback on one out of three of their homework assignments. The delayed feedback group demonstrated a higher week-to-week dropout rate than the immediate feedback group, and surveys indicated that students have a strong preference for immediate feedback grading. There was no statistically significant difference in final examination score between the delayed feedback group and the immediate feedback group.