Automated Feedback and Interactions/What are Automated Feedback and Automated Interactions

Automated Feedback and Interactions

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What are Automated Feedback and Automated Interactions?

In e-learning environments, text and images are commonly displayed to disseminate information to the learner, similar to a web page. Courses are typically divided into sections such as Introduction, Content, and Assessment. Most of the learner interaction within the course comes from feedback from the instructor, course forums, or e-mail -- in other words, from live people writing material in real time.

As e-learning platforms have become more dynamic, instructional designers and course developers now have options to add automated interactivity to a course. In essence:

Automated interactions are pre-programmed events that automatically react to learner input in an e-learning environment. (They may also be referred to as "interactives.")

These events can include simple animation when the learner clicks in a designated spot in the course, or can provide automated feedback when the learner enters information. Automated feedback is different than the feedback instructors and peers manually create. It is developed before the learner ever enters the course and is prompted by the learner’s actions. This type of feedback is displayed immediately and is typically the same for every student. As Wilson, Olinghouse, and Andrada (2014, p. 93) write:

Hattie and Timperley (2007) define feedback as information provided by an “agent” regarding specific aspects of a student’s task performance or conceptual understanding. Instructional feedback goes a step further, in that the provided information not only indicates correctness/incorrectness, but clearly indicates ways to improve performance or understanding (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). This definition of instructional feedback applies to feedback provided by any type of agent, such as an adult, peer, or computer (i.e., automated feedback).

Automated interactions and feedback are highly dependent upon the platform in which the course is developed and what capabilities and skills the designer has. Articulate Storyline 2, a popular e-learning development tool, has simple interactions templates that are easily embedded. Adobe Captivate, another popular development tool, requires more skill and knowledge in scripting to create interaction. Many Learning Management Systems (LMS) include authoring capabilities but vary widely as to what kind of automation is included.

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What is the correct definition of automated interactions?

	Student-created events in the e-learning environment.
	Instructor-created events in the physical classroom environment.
	Interaction that is usually not possible to create in an e-learning environment.
	Pre-programmed events that automatically react to learner input in an e-learning environment.

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