Innovative Practices in Instructor E-feedback: A Case Study of E-feedback given in Three Linguistic Courses during the COVID 19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the instructor’s electronic feedback practices during the COVID 19 Pandemic in terms of the nature of the content of e-feedback, the formulation, the challenges, and the multimodal nature of the instructor’s e-feedback. This study used a qualitative case study to obtain data from the instructor’s e-feedback in three linguistic courses as delivered, practiced by the single English language instructor. The instructor’s e-feedback via Blackboard and WhatsApp platform and the follow-up interview were analyzed qualitatively. The findings indicate that (1) the highest number of instructor’s e-feedback focused on global issues as compared to local issues, (2) the instructor composed his e-feedback in the form of eight main categories: explanations, suggestions, clarifications, questioning, repetitions, statements, praises, and commands, (3) the instructor used more screencasts for providing e-feedback, followed by written and audio modes respectively. The thematic analysis (4) revealed the instructor’s positive impression on providing e-feedback through these interactive modes (written, audio, and screencast) and a range of challenging issues such as students’ preference issues, technical issues, timing issues, financial and areal issues. This study is significant because it provides us with a comprehensive picture of the patterns of the feedback content, the formulation of the e-feedback, the multimodality of the instructor’s e-feedback, and the significant issues that emerged from the instructor’s e-feedback practices. However, further research should include a relative group of instructors to determine the impact of e-feedback on learners.