Responding to student writing online: Tracking student interactions with instructor feedback in a Learning Management System

- Learning Management Systems often make grades visible apart from feedback.
- Separating grades from instructor feedback changes the nature of response.
- Two response methodologies for grading in Learning Management Systems were compared.
- We analyzed data tracking students' actual behavior in accessing feedback.
- Students are less likely to open feedback when grades are visible separately.

Instructor response to student writing increasingly takes place within Learning Management Systems (LMSs), which often make grades visible apart from instructor feedback by default. Previous studies indicate that students generally ascribe more value to grades than to instructor feedback, while instructors believe that feedback is most important. This study investigated how students interact with an LMS interface-an instance of Sakai-to access instructor feedback on their writing. Our blind study analyzed data from 334 students in 16 courses at a medium, comprehensive private college to investigate the question: Does the rate at which students open attachments with instructor feedback differ if students can see their grades without opening the attachment? We compared two response methodologies: mode 1 made grades visible apart from feedback, and mode 2 required students to open attached feedback files to find their grades. The data for each mode was collected automatically by the LMS, retrieved, and retrospectively analyzed. The results show that making grades visible separate from feedback significantly reduced the rate at which students opened instructor feedback files and that timing also impacted students' rate of access. These findings provide the basis for empirically informed best practices for grading and returning papers online.