The role of feedback in online learning communities

The Internet, with its capabilities for flexibility, networking and distributed nature, and technologies that foster interactivity provides a suitable medium for distance education delivery. This paper contributes in the relatively limited literature that deals with the evaluation of learning systems and more specifically computer-aided assessment (CAA). The work discussed in this paper follows on the successful findings of earlier experiments of online assessment concerned primarily with the provision of feedback to participating learners. The sample for the study was drawn from undergraduate students taking a module of methodologies and techniques for engineering and information systems at two different campuses of Middlesex University, London. These findings are compared to the ones of an earlier study previously published in ICALT2004 and TEDC2004.