The licensing of open educational resources allows for interactive questions with immediate feedback to be added to open textbooks. However, it is not clear what type and placement of feedback is most effective. In this study, 390 college and high school students were randomly assigned either correct-answer only feedback or elaborative feedback (with explanations for why the answer is correct). The questions with the feedback were either in the middle-and-end of the textbook excerpt or the end of the excerpt only. Student learning from the textbook excerpt was highest with elaborative feedback that was only at the end of the textbook excerpt. The findings were similar across groups traditionally underserved in higher education such as first-generation college students and racially-minoritized students. In addition, elaborative feedback at the end of the textbook excerpt appeared to be the most helpful across a range of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Describe how experimental research may contribute to open education knowledge.
- Explain the differences between correct-response only and elaborative feedback.
- Prepare questions and feedback for revising open textbooks.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of different types and placements of feedback in open textbooks
