The art of questioning in online learning environments: the potentialities of feedback in writing

Research on feedback has focused more on generating feedback rather than on how students use it and implement it; that is, what type of cognitive, metacognitive or affective activity students engage in once they have received feedback. In order to visualize feedback use and implementation, a quasi-experimental study was carried out. Students were randomly assigned to four conditions, in respect of the type of feedback (corrective, epistemic-questioning, suggestive and epistemic + suggestive). This research provides evidence of how students use and implement feedback in online collaborative writing. Findings show that when students received epistemic + suggestive feedback, they engaged in more cognitive and metacognitive activities. With regard to implementation, students who received epistemic + suggestive feedback obtained better final marks. This study highlights the importance of metacognitive activities in online learning, as they play a key role in the implementation of feedback.