Direct and indirect effects of feedback, feedback orientation, and goal orientations on students' academic performance in online learning

Feedback is an essential part of the instruction; yet the research on feedback shows inconclusive results in terms of its influence on learning and performance. Literature suggests that feedback studies should be more comprehensive to examine the influence of personality characteristics of feedback recipient on the effects of feedback on performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of instructor feedback on learners' academic performance in relation to personality characteristics in college-level online learning environments. Three main research questions are addressed: 1. Does academic motivation mediate the effects of instructor feedback on academic performance? 2. Does learner's goal orientation interact with the effects of instructor feedback on academic performance? 3. Does learner's feedback orientation toward instructor feedback interact with the effect of instructor feedback on academic performance?;Data for this study come from 399 college students, who were taking at least one online undergraduate course during the fall 2013 semester. Students were surveyed regarding their feedback orientation, goal orientation, academic motivation, type of feedback they received on a major assignment, perceived performance gain from this feedback, and their anticipated course grade. The results of this study indicated that learners performed better when they received elaborated feedback compared to when they received non-elaborated feedback or no feedback. The results did not provide supporting evidence for mediating role of academic motivation or moderating role of goal orientation. In contrast, learners' feedback orientation was found to moderate the effects of feedback on academic performance. That is, instructor feedback leads to higher performance improvement for learners with a positive feedback orientation than for learners with a negative feedback orientation. Albeit modest, the findings of this study suggest that learners should be provided with specific and goal-directed feedback and they should be given opportunities to apply the feedback in subsequent learning activities. Instructors should also consider teaching their students how to receive feedback in order to increase the acceptance and utilization of the instructor feedback.