Felicity Small

What Is the Impact of Online Resource Materials on Student Self-Learning Strategies?

The purpose of this article is to examine how students are incorporating online resources into their self-regulated learning strategies. The process of developing these learning strategies and the importance of these strategies has been widely researched, but there has been little empirical research into how the students are affected by online environments. This preliminary study focused on the relationship between the use of online resources and the students’ overall outcome in the subject. The data were collected from first year on-campus (n = 105) and distance education (n = 258) students after completing their introductory marketing subject. The data were analyzed using correlations, simple regression, and Tobit regression to assess online activity and student outcomes. The results indicate that the use of these online resources has a significant and positive effect on the students’ grade. This finding suggests students are incorporating online environments into their learning strategies, which results in higher grades. Moreover, in practical terms, the results imply that teachers can help facilitate student self-learning strategies by creating encouraging and resource-rich online environments.

Undergraduate student responses to feedback: expectations and experiences

This research is a qualitative exploration of first and second year university students’ experiences of feedback, specifically focused on their expectations and feelings. The data (n = 46) were collected from internal and distance-learning students in their first or second year, who are of lower socio-economic status and first in family to attend. The results suggest that students expect feedback to inform future assessments and provide sufficient explanation to help them improve. Moreover, students are also sophisticated in their use of feedback as some become more self-reflective learners using feedback rubrics to compare their assessment with the academic comments. The conclusions of this research are that students appreciate feedback when it is clear and instructive, they value the critical opinion of academics, but there are still issues of power imbalance as students may still be unwilling to contact academics if the feedback requires clarification.