Enhancing Master Students’ Dissertation Writing Through Effective Feedback: Electronic versus Face-to-face Feedback

Abstract

Providing supervisory feedback on students’ written drafts is, by all means, crucial for their progress. The current research attempts to investigate the notion of which mode of feedback, electronic or face-to-face, is more effective in enhancing second year Master students’ dissertation writing. Further, the present investigation intends to explore students’ perceptions, rationales, and attitudes vis-à-vis the impact of different modes of feedback provision on their dissertation writing proficiency. Hence, it is hypothesized that electronic feedback is more effective than face-to-face feedback in enhancing second year master students’ dissertation writing. To have an in-depth analysis of the previously mentioned hypothesis and accurate answers to the theoretical questions, the descriptive method was adopted. Further, it was realized through the administration of students’ online questionnaire by sending a digital version to second-year Master students at the department of English, 8 Mai 1945 University-Guelma. The achieved findings highlighted the different impact electronic and face-to-face modes of feedback have on master students’ dissertation writing proficiency. Furthermore, the analysis of the achieved results revealed that with respect to the quality of feedback, nearly 30% of the participants preferred e-feedback for its accessibility, timeliness, and legibility. Yet, the majority of the research sample preferred face-to-face feedback, as they perceived this type of feedback as more constructive, personal, and informative. Besides, the current research results uncovered that face-to-face feedback is more effective in enhancing second year Master students’ dissertation writing. Therefore, academic supervisors ought to take into serious account the adoption of this mode of feedback provision in future supervision processes.