Enhancing writing process insights: A study on master students' perceptions and evaluation of process-oriented feedback

Abstract

Context: Process-oriented feedback has great potential to promote students’ learning process in writing. It increases their understanding of personal writing strategies, promotes self-regulation, and can improve writing performance.

Aim: In this study, we report on the design of a feedback workshop that aims to give 60 master students a thorough insight into their writing processes. The study’s purpose is to explore students’ perceptions on writing process feedback.

Method: Students performed a written task during class. Their writing processes were logged with keystroke logging software Inputlog. During writing, students had access to the course materials (online learning module with theory and exercises) and were allowed to consult online language tools and generative AI tools to support their writing. In addition, students’ self-efficacy for writing and self-monitoring were measured via questionnaires. One week later, students participated in the workshop. They received personal feedback based on the questionnaire data and a feedback report with keystroke logging data (Vandermeulen et al., 2020). Students compared visualisations of their process to model processes and processes of their peers. Via a personalised dynamic source graph, they explored their source use during writing. Process strategies to make effective use of sources and of generative AI were discussed.

Results: The presentation will provide insights into the different feedback materials, tools, and activities. We will evaluate this type of writing process feedback based on data from two questionnaires measuring the participants’ feedback literacy behaviours (Dawson et al., 2023) and evaluation of the feedback.

Conclusion: This study will provide useful insights to further shape writing process feedback.