Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video technology

Peer-to-peer feedback provision is considered crucial to student learning. However, although the studies on peer feedback abound in the literature, most target the face-to-face or written modality; few investigate the pedagogic potential of videos in enhancing students' engagement in the feedback provision process. The current research project thus bridged the research gap by investigating learner engagement through multimodal video feedback as compared to text-based feedback and by exploring the strategies learners employed as well as the challenges they encountered. A total of 60 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners participated in a semester-long video feedback project where they produced 3-min speech video clips and 2-min oral feedback video clips that contained multiple semiotic modes such as visual, verbal, and gestural. Data analyses performed on responses to a custom-designed questionnaire, interview transcripts, and learner reflections led to three major findings. First, learners in general valued the role that video technology played in feedback production and provision, delineating that feedback in the video mode cannot only promote more interaction but also foster more personalized learning and attentive engagement. Second, the study uncovered a number of cognitive and social strategies learners used to ensure fluency and accuracy of their oral feedback, to achieve cognitive goals by efficiently producing the feedback, to observe positively-reinforced behaviors from peers, and to cooperate with others to generate ideas for future improvement. Nevertheless, the project revealed some potential challenges associated with feedback development and technical problems. Finally, implications are proposed to facilitate feedback provision experience through video technology.