STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 1

Journal Article Critique: Student Engagement

School of Education, Liberty University

Author Note

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to

Email:

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 2

Journal Article Critique: Student Engagement

The article Digitally recorded assessment feedback in a secondary school context:

student engagement, perception and impact by Ryan, Henderson, & Phillips (2019) focuses on

how educators can replace traditional, written pieces of feedback with voice recordings. Overall,

the article focuses on the usefulness of digital feedback, its impact on student motivation and

engagement, and student feedback on its implementation. It discusses the need for this type of

feedback based on how students respond to it and the corrections made by students. This critique

will summarize the authors’ study and research findings, analyze the authors’ credibility, and

discuss the methodology.

Summary

The authors’ final sample included 346 secondary and higher-education students who

completed their survey (Ryan et al., 2020). In this study, teachers were trained by the authors to

use various types of technology in order to create digitally recorded feedback comments. The

teachers then used their choice of technology to provide feedback on formative and summative

assessments, such as essays and math problems, using specific feedback guidelines (Ryan et al.,

2020). Some educators also chose to pair their digital comments with written ones. Their

comments may have been up to 20 minutes for seniors, but most of the other scholars had

feedback between 1 and 5 minutes long (Ryan et al., 2020).

The authors divided their findings into engagement, preference, and impact categories. In

terms of engagement, most students who participated “engaged with feedback at least once, and

many did so multiple times” (Ryan et al., 2020, p. 318). Although both groups appreciated the

digital feedback for the category of preference, secondary students would have liked longer

recordings, similar to higher-education scholars (Ryan et al., 2020). The students appreciated the

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 3

detail provided and the specific cues used by the teachers. Lastly, both sets of students agreed

“felt that the digitally recorded feedback had positively influenced their understanding and

confidence to improve future work” (Ryan et al., 2020, p. 321).

Critical Analysis

The article has a brief overview of the credentials and links to an ORCID (Open

Researcher and Contributor ID) account for each author. Tracii Ryan is listed as employed at the

University of Melbourne as a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher

Education (“Tracii Ryan,” n.d.). Her research, published articles, and contributions have mainly

revolved around feedback, technology, and socioemotional learning (“Tracii Ryan,” n.d.). Ryan

has published and co-published over 40 educational research articles since 2011 (“Tracii Ryan,”

n.d.). Michael Henderson is currently a Monash University professor specializing in digital

education (“Michael Henderson,” n.d.). His works focus on feedback and effective online

teaching and learning, and he has contributed to or published over 100 works (“Michael

Henderson,” n.d.). Lastly, Michael Phillips is also a Monash University professor; however, he

specializes in digital transformation (“Michael Phillips,” n.d.). He aims to enhance educators’

understanding of educational technology (“Michael Phillips,” n.d.).

The article’s intended audience is educators of secondary or postsecondary students

because the groups and teachers who participated in the study are a part of either of these

schools. The authors clearly state their main points through their introduction and literature

review. The authors mention the need to build relationships between students and teachers by

focusing more on ensuring students achieve their highest ability (Ryan et al., 2020). In their

literature review, several works are cited regarding the importance of feedback; however,

teachers often need more time and effort to provide such comments to many students in a timely

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 4

manner (Ryan et al., 2020). Therefore, they explore the possibility of digital recording comments

to cut back on time while still providing detailed, constructive criticisms in less time than written

comments.

A strength of their research was the number of students involved in their study. In

addition, the authors used a design-based approach for their research, which “is an established

technique for researching the development and evaluation of interventions in educational

contexts” (Ryan et al., 2020, p. 313). A design-based approach in research attempts to solve

problems by developing and implementing interventions while revising its design principles and

working extensively with the teachers involved in the process (Lim & Nguyen, 2021). However,

some of their limitations were that all secondary students were females, and English was not the

first language for most of them. It would have been interesting to see data with males and

students whose first language was not English. Also, although they state that some teachers opted

to include written feedback with digital feedback, it was not specified if the written comments

were a transcript of the digital versions or different comments.

Conclusion

Providing scholars with timely, detailed feedback will help them grow and improve as

students. Students will have the chance to acknowledge their strengths and weakness and make

corrections for the next assignment. This may also increase a student’s engagement in class

because they will know more immediately how they perform on class tasks. Digital feedback

may also be easier for teachers to complete if they are at ease and knowledgeable about the

technology. Faster feedback can lead to pinpointing the areas of need more efficiently and allow

for more differentiation in the classroom.

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 5

References

Lim, F. V., & Nguyen, T. T. (2021). Design-based research approach for teacher learning: A case

study from Singapore. ELT Journal, 76(4), 452–464. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab035

Michael Henderson. Monash University. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/michael-henderson

Michael Phillips. Monash University. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/michael-phillips

Ryan, T., Henderson, M., & Phillips, M. (2020). Digitally recorded assessment feedback in a

secondary school context: Student engagement, perception and impact. Technology,

Pedagogy and Education, 29(3), 311–325.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2020.1744479

Tracii Ryan. Melbourne CSHE. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://melbourne-

cshe.unimelb.edu.au/about/our-staff/tracii-ryan

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