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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