On campus and distance student attitudes towards paperless assessment and feedback

Barney Dalgarno, Anthony Chan, Peter Adams, Phil Roy, Daryl Miller

Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the use of paperless submission and return of university assignments has potential advantages for reducing delays in each direction, especially for students studying part-time, online or at a distance. There are also potential advantages in terms of the quality of feedback and also potential cost savings through reduced printing either by the student or by the institution. A number of studies have explored the use of technologies to assist with the process of submission, marking or return of student assignments, but to date there is little information available about student attitudes to its use. This paper reports on a survey of students who participated in a large-scale trial of paperless submission, marking and return of assignments. The results suggest that students in general are strongly in favour of paperless approaches. Advantages identified included reductions in time delays, ability to retrieve feedback while away from home, improved legibility of feedback, reduced printing, and more convenient storage of past assignments. Disadvantages identified included the cost of printing returned assignments and problems with uploading over slow Internet connections. There was no significant difference between preference for paperless marking of students studying on campus and at a distance, with the majority of students in all study modes responding positively. Students were divided in their preference for receiving feedback via email (ie. using a push model), versus downloading their feedback themselves (ie. using a pull model), indicating that both alternatives should be made available.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, ASCILITE 2007
Place of PublicationAustralia
PublisherASCILTE
Pages168-178
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9789810595791
Publication statusPublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes
Event24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education - "ICT: Providing Choices for Learners and Learning", ASCILITE 2007 - , Singapore
Duration: 2 Dec 20075 Dec 2007

Publication series

NameASCILITE 2007 - The Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education

Conference

Conference24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education - "ICT: Providing Choices for Learners and Learning", ASCILITE 2007
Country/TerritorySingapore
Period2/12/075/12/07

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'On campus and distance student attitudes towards paperless assessment and feedback'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this