Automated Feedback Is Nice and Human Presence Makes It Better: Teachers’ Perceptions of Feedback by Means of an E-Portfolio Enhanced with Learning Analytics

Abstract

While there is now extensive research on feedback in the context of higher education, including pre-service teacher education, little has been reported regarding the use of feedback from teachers to other teachers. Moreover, literature on the potential advantages that the use of technology, for example electronic portfolios and learning analytics, has in improving feedback in the in-service workplace practices, is also sparse. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory case study was to explore how in-service teachers perceived the peer feedback they received and provided through a web-based electronic portfolio during a professional development course carried out in their workplace. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 38 teachers who received feedback through a learning analytics enhanced electronic portfolio and from 23 teachers who received feedback only by the electronic portfolio. Additionally, one individual and four focus group interviews were conducted with 15 teachers who were the feedback providers. Several common topics were identified in the interviews with the feedback receivers and providers, involving the benefits and challenges of human interaction and the flexibility of the feedback process that the electronic portfolio offered. The results also revealed better feedback experience within the group of teachers who received extra feedback by means of learning analytics. It is concluded that although an electronic portfolio provides a useful tool in terms of flexibility in the provision and receipt of feedback, the need for human interaction was acknowledged.