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AbstractFeedback has long been considered a significant lever to enhance learning experience and success in higher education. However, students have shown much discontent with the current feedback practice. Feedback experienced as a relational process in which students feel recognized and valued is perceived as paramount for helping support the uptake of feedback and promote positive learning dispositions. However, little attention has been paid to suggesting how instructors in higher educational institutions can facilitate relational feedback. In response, we conducted a rapid literature review with a particular focus on the creation of feedback content. In total, 17 peer-reviewed publications on relational feedback are included. Based on a qualitative analysis of these papers, we developed a framework of 12 characteristics for offering relational feedback. These 12 characteristics were further categorised into four types of feedback conductive to a relational process, including (i) clarifying performance, (ii) suggesting improvement, (iii) inviting further communication, and (iv) evoking positive emotions. We examined how each of these characteristics supports the relational aspects of feedback. Based on the qualitative analysis results, we offered practical recommendations for instructors to apply relational feedback in their pedagogical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that effective learner-centred feedback requires learner agency, impact and sensemaking. While scholars are focusing on supporting agency and impact, limited research has addressed sensemaking. This is problematic, because if learners fail to understand feedback, impact is likely to be reduced. In response, this study examines (non) alignment between teacher intent and student sensemaking of authentic feedback comments. The sample included four teachers and eighteen students from two Australian universities. Data were collected via stimulated recall interviews and a feedback coding task. The results suggest that sensemaking of strength-based comments, critiques and actionable information was aided when the comments were clear and specific. On the other hand, sensemaking was limited when comments were designed to mitigate against negative affect, overloaded with multiple intentions, or overly brief. This study informs theory around learner-centred feedback design which, in turn, improves the likelihood that teacher comments will be interpreted accurately by learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjectures are a key component of mathematical inquiry, a process in which the students raise conjectures, refute or dismiss some of them, and formulate additional ones. Taking a designbased research approach, we formulated a design principle for personal feedback in supporting the iterative process of conjecturing. We empirically explored the design principle by studying the use that four pairs of high school students made of online feedback when working on two example-eliciting tasks. Analysis focused on the ways in which the feedback was apparent in the students’ reasoning process. The findings indicate that designed elaborated feedback supported interactions that led students to formulate new conjectures and motivated them to resume the inquiry and to generalise their initial conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to recent conceptual shifts towards learner-centred feedback, there is a potential gap between research and practice. Indeed, few models or studies have sought to identify or evaluate which semantic messages, or feedback components, teachers should include in learner-centred feedback comments. Instead, teacher practices are likely to be primarily shaped by 'old paradigm' conceptualisations of feedback. In response, the current study develops a taxonomy of learner-centred feedback components based on a rapid systematic review of the literature. The face, content and construct validity of the taxonomy are then established through an empirical study with teachers and students at two Australian universities. The outcome of this study is a conceptual model featuring eight learner-centred feedback components. This model will help teachers design effective feedback processes and support learners to make sense of and use feedback information to improve their future work and learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although instructional feedback plays an essential role in regulating learning and improving performance, few studies have systematically investigated the needs of teachers and students for instructional feedback systems or developed designs and experiments, especially at the high school level. To address this research need, the present study investigated the needs of selected students and teachers in a high school in Hubei Province, China, and designed and developed a diagnostic visual feedback system for an experimental study with 125 students from a 10th-grade biology class in the same high school. The results showed that this diagnostic visual feedback report improved student performance (ES = 0.37) and that functions such as misconception location, knowledge diagnosis, and knowledge alert were well received by students. These findings have multiple implications for facilitating the design and development of diagnostic visual feedback systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving evaluations aim to ensure adequate skills; however, feedback beyond pass/fail is needed for improvement. Therefore, the goal of this study was to inform driving feedback report design to ensure ease of use and understandability while motivating improvements. Participants ages 18–25 years (n = 521) were recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels to rate one of nine report design conditions with various combinations of five key features: performance summary presence, action plan (AP) length, AP order, AP grading system, and peer comparison presence; they then completed questionnaires. Participants were more motivated to improve when a summary was present (p = 0.02); they rated reports easier to use if they had a long AP (p = 0.01), a short AP paired with a summary (p = 0.007), or an AP with a number grade (p = 0.016); and they rated reports easier to understand if they had a short AP (p = 0.002) or an AP ordered by worst-to-best performance (p = 0.05). These results suggest that feedback reports designed with a performance summary and short, targeted action plan starting with the biggest area for improvement are likely to motivate action to improve driving skills while being easy to use and understand. Future research should evaluate the effect of such a redesigned report on driving outcomes among young drivers.

Effectiveness in teaching-learning process and attainment of program outcomes are the areas for which educational institutes are largely accountable. Internal feedback mechanism is the key to enhance the quality of teaching-learning process thereby contributing towards attainment of program outcomes and hence important for the growth of institute. This mechanism should be strong enough for receiving adequate information from stakeholders to help in tweaking or improving the processes. Feedback from students has been a common mechanism being followed in the educational institutes. Also, the industry feedback is considered for curriculum revision. In this paper we will discuss about threepronged (3P) approach for such a feedback mechanism. Three prongs in this approach are the closed loop feedback mechanism, sensitizing students about the importance of feedback and agility in feedback process. Designing feedback and analyzing the feedback received from all the sources in tandem is the backbone of this approach and has been discussed in detail in this paper. The paper presents case study of implementation of proposed 3P approach to enhance the students' learning of computer programming course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although instructional feedback plays an essential role in regulating learning and improving performance, few studies have systematically investigated the needs of teachers and students for instructional feedback systems or developed designs and experiments, especially at the high school level. To address this research need, the present study investigated the needs of selected students and teachers in a high school in Hubei Province, China, and designed and developed a diagnostic visual feedback system for an experimental study with 125 students from a 10th-grade biology class in the same high school. The results showed that this diagnostic visual feedback report improved student performance (ES = 0.37) and that functions such as misconception location, knowledge diagnosis, and knowledge alert were well received by students. These findings have multiple implications for facilitating the design and development of diagnostic visual feedback systems.

Students' engagement with feedback is a major determinant of feedback effectiveness. There is evidence, however, that not all students engage with feedback well because the transmission, teacher-centred approach overlooks students' role in feedback processes. This study explores how learner-centred feedback processes could be designed to enhance students' engagement. Embedded in two-stage assignments, the first step of the design involved peer feedback on a mid-term assignment. The second step included students producing an audio file to self-assess performance, followed by their teacher's audio response to their self-assessment prior to the submission of a related, final assignment. Data analysis on an open-ended survey, interviews with 35 taught postgraduates and selected feedback vignettes indicated that this learner-centred design could promote students' engagement by increasing their feedback responsibility, evaluative judgement and psychological safety. The significance of this article lies in discussing learner-centred feedback design principles and the wider application of the learner-centred practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ubiquity of smartphone and tablet devices, combined with the increasing availability of serious games, has enabled students to learn various abstract concepts in an appealing and convenient manner. While several researchers have explored the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in serious games, many of these games have not been critically explained or evaluated. To that end, we employed game-based learning methodologies and Game Learning Analytics (GLA) to systematize the design and evaluation of an AR-based serious game to teach programming. We evaluated our game for usability and effectiveness by conducting a user study on twenty-seven undergraduate students. The evaluation primarily consisted of a learning test conducted twice – before and after playing the game – along with a usability questionnaire that players completed after playing the game. Our results showed that players made significant progress after playing the game. The game helped players improve their basic programming skills, especially for the group having lower prior programming skills. The results highlighted various ways in which GLA can be used to benefit different stakeholders in the game. Based on players' qualitative responses, we also identified several areas of improvement, most prominently the trade-off between ease of use and game complexity. We provide suggestions and discuss implications for future work. • Design and evaluation procedures for an Augmented Reality-based serious game to teach programming are presented. • An empirical study with twenty-seven undergraduate students is conducted. • Students with lesser prior programming skills show significant improvement after playing the game. • A Game Learning Analytics framework is incorporated in the game for various stakeholder benefits. • Suggestions and implications for future work are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback design is an important aspect in person-following robots for older adults. This paper presents a user-centered design approach to ensure the design is focused on users’ needs and preferences. A sequence of user studies with a total of 35 older adults (aged 62 years and older) was conducted to explore their preferences regarding feedback parameters for a socially assistive person-following robot. The preferred level of robot transparency and the desired content for the feedback was first explored. This was followed by an assessment of the preferred mode and timing of feedback. The chosen feedback parameters were then implemented and evaluated in a final experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the design. Results revealed that older adults preferred to receive only basic status information. They preferred voice feedback over tone, and at a continuous rate to keep them constantly aware of the state and actions of the robot. The outcome of the study is a further step towards feedback design guidelines that could improve interaction quality in person-following robots for older adults.

Current conceptualisations of feedback contend that it should be a learner-centred process. In practice, however, text-based feedback comments from teachers are a convenient and common source of feedback information, despite appearing to be contra-indicative of learner-centred models. This raises the question of how teachers can tackle the design of text-based learner-centred feedback, but at present there is limited empirical evidence available to answer this question. In response, we conducted a rapid review and qualitative synthesis of 95 peer-reviewed scholarly publications on feedback, and appraised the results through the lens of four diverse conceptualisations of learner-centred feedback. This process led to the development of a framework of 12 learner-centred design attributes for text-based feedback, which were organised around three layers of design: contexts, characteristics and components. Each of these design attributes are discussed and practical recommendations are synthesised from the literature. Areas in need of additional empirical research are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new stabilizing feedback design method is proposed in this paper for time delayed polynomial systems with a linear input structure. The task is to transform the open loop system to a time delayed complex balanced kinetic system by using a polynomial state feedback structure which guarantees stability with arbitrary time delays. It is shown that the required computations can be performed by simple linear programming, when the only goal is the semistability of the chosen equilibrium point. If one wants to achieve additionally the uniqueness of the closed loop equilibrium point to ensure local asymptotic stability, then the extended optimization problem requires the application of semidefinite programming. The existence of the solution and computability of the feedback do not depend on the magnitude of the delays. It is shown that involving additional monomials into the feedback beyond the ones contained in the open-loop model does not improve the solvability of the semistabilization problem, but it may ensure the uniqueness of the prescribed complex balanced equilibrium point. Thus, two variants of a systematic method are proposed to find appropriate extra monomials for the feedback. One of these requires to solve a linear programming optimization problem even in this extended case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We face delays in a variety of situations. They are either inevitable, e.g., due to system limits, or are intentionally added, e.g., advertisements. In many situations, a visual feedback is provided during the delay to manage expectations. This feedback is usually provided through progress bars, percentages, or countdowns, depending on design limitations such as screen size. In this article, we use 15-second delays and examine (a) how delays affect users' decision-making and task satisfaction, and (b) how to manipulate time perception to reduce the negative consequences of delays. Experiment 1 (N = 421) shows that faster countdowns increase task satisfaction and lead to more rational decisions in the subsequent task. In Experiment 2, we investigate the effect of countdown speed on delay perception and recall (N = 531). We show that faster countdowns lead to shorter perceived delays, while the delay will be recalled as longer after the task. The opposite is obtained for slower countdowns. We also increased the countdown rate and found a limit for the effect of increased speed. Thus, designers have to trade-off between how delays are perceived at the moment of experience and how they are recalled. We discuss the implications of these findings for user interface design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-feedback is a widely-used strategy at the university level for its positive impact on student learning and its multifaceted advantages encompassing social, cognitive, and metacognitive development. However, few studies have assessed its contribution to the development of teamwork skills. This study analyzes students’ perception of how peer-feedback contributes to the development of teamwork skills by comparing the results of two class groups that have taken the same subject, though with different feedback experience designs (face-to-face and mixed feedback vs. non-face-to-face and written feedback, with or without consensus among group members). At the end of the study, 82 participants completed a questionnaire to assess their perception of the peer-feedback experience and its impact on learning and the development of teamwork skills. The findings reveal that students perceive that giving and receiving feedback in face-to-face mixed modality contributes more to developing teamwork skills; however, the presence or absence of consensus among group members to give or receive feedback does not appear to exert a clear impact on the development of these skills. Additionally, the findings suggest that students perceive a greater development of teamwork skills by giving feedback rather than receiving it. These results highlight the importance for teachers to consider such aspects when designing peer-feedback experiences, aiming to maximize the impact on the development of teamwork skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment feedback is one of the most important components of the learning process. However, student and educator dissatisfaction with feedback practices continues to remain a significant problem in higher education. To better understand the barriers to effective feedback, the present study explores feedback challenges identified by 3807 students and 281 educators from two Australian universities. Open-response data were analysed using an inductively derived coding framework and thematic analysis. The findings reveal three major themes relating to the challenges of feedback from the perspective of students and educators: feedback practices, contextual constraints and individual capacity. In addition to confirming the persistence of many previously reported challenges in the literature, this paper also offers insights into challenges that are particular to feedback, especially relating to the production of useful comments and the perceived hurdles of both student and educator attitudes and capabilities. The findings also highlight the constrained nature of educators' work, particularly in relation to time. While further research is needed, we propose that feedback needs to be understood as an interaction between practices, context and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A "general dissipativity constraint" (GDC) is introduced to facilitate the design of stable feedback systems. A primary application is to MPC controllers when it is preferred to avoid the use of "stabilising ingredients" such as terminal constraint sets or long prediction horizons. Some very general convergence results are proved under mild conditions. The use of quadratic functions, replacing GDC by "quadratic dissipativity constraint" (QDC), is introduced to allow implementation using linear matrix inequalities. The use of QDC is illustrated for several scenarios: state feedback for a linear time‐invariant system, MPC of a linear system, MPC of an input‐affine system, and MPC with persistent disturbances. The stability that is guaranteed by GDC is weaker than Lyapunov stability, being "Lagrange stability plus convergence." Input‐to‐state stability is obtained if the control law is continuous in the state. An example involving an open‐loop unstable helicopter illustrates the efficacy of the approach in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the effects of limited feedback on beliefs and contributions in a repeated public goods game setting. In a first experiment, we test whether exogenously determined feedback about a good example (i.e., the maximum contribution in a period) in contrast to a bad example (i.e., the minimum contribution in a period) induces higher contributions. We find that when the type of feedback is not transparent to the group members, good examples boost cooperation while bad examples hamper it. There is no difference when the type of feedback is transparent. In a second experiment, feedback is endogenously chosen by a group leader. The results show that a large majority of the group leaders count on the positive effect of providing a good example. This is true regardless whether they choose the feedback type to be transparent or non-transparent. Half of the group leaders make the type of feedback transparent. With endogenously chosen feedback about good examples no difference in contributions can be observed among transparent and non-transparent feedback selection. In both experiments feedback shapes subjects' beliefs. With exogenously chosen feedback, transparent feedback tends to reduce beliefs when good examples are provided as feedback and tends to increase beliefs in when bad examples are provided as feedback compared to the respective non-transparent cases. Our results shed new light on the design of feedback provision in public goods settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Comparison of numerical vs. symbolic eco-driving feedback in a large randomized control field trial over 10 weeks. • Only the symbolic eco-driving feedback led to significant fuel reduction of 2–3%. • Effect is stable when controlling for the influence of road attributes and other covariates. Abstract Despite the fact that more and more car dashboards are being equipped with powerful, high-resolution displays, allowing for radically new ways to design driving feedback, the question of what impact different design types and features have on real-world eco-driving remains largely unclear. To address this research gap, we conducted a randomized control field trial in Switzerland with 62 road assistance drivers over a period of 10 weeks, covering over 245,000 km. We evaluate the effect of eco-driving feedback on fuel consumption for two types of feedback: numerical feedback (which uses numbers and gauges to present numerical values) and symbolic feedback (which translates numerical values into symbolic representations). Both, numeric and symbolic eco-driving feedback were tested against a control group. Data analyses are performed on the level of 265,939 dynamic road segments with constant road characteristics to account for the significant effect of road attributes on fuel consumption. Results of a fixed-effects regression models reveal that only the symbolic feedback design led to significant reductions of 2–3% in fuel consumption. The effect is robust across different model specifications that control for the influence of road attributes and other covariates. We conclude that the design of eco-driving feedback can have a significant impact on its effectiveness for promoting a less fuel-consuming driving style. We conjecture that there is a large untapped potential for manufacturers to use modern digitalized dashboards that can improve the impact of driver feedback systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crack prevention is a significant issue in the construction process of concrete dams. The vast majority of concrete cracks are related to temperature variations, and hence, temperature control is a primary method used to prevent cracks. This paper presents a new integrated concept, named Feedback Design (FD) of temperature control measures, which incorporates real-time temperature monitoring, temperature field simulation and construction process simulation in a large system to optimize a temperature control scheme for concrete dams. We used a fiber-optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system to monitor the temperature variation process of typical dam monoliths in real time. By incorporating a genetic algorithm, neural network algorithm, and finite element theory, we proposed an intelligent inversion method to obtain thermal parameters of concrete dams based on the temperature monitoring data. Meanwhile, we built a simulation model of a concrete dam’s construction process based on a cycling network technique to obtain accurate construction environmental parameters. Finally, we simulated the temperature field of a typical dam monolith based on initial temperature control measures, inversion thermal parameters, and accurate construction environmental parameters. Temperature variance lines of typical points in the model obtained from the finite element method (FEM) accord well with the measured values obtained from the DTS system. We applied the FD approach to the Xiluodu arch dam located in southwest China to forecast the temperature fields and optimize the temperature control scheme of the dam blocks planned for pouring. The FD approach has been proven reliable and efficacious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurofeedback (NF) is a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) application, in which the brain activity is fed back to the user in real-time enabling voluntary brain control. In this context, the significance of the feedback design is mainly unexplored. Highly immersive feedback scenarios using virtual reality (VR) technique are available. However, their effects on subjective user experience as well as on objective outcome measures remain open. In the present article, we discuss the general pros and cons of using VR as feedback modality in BCI applications. Furthermore, we report on the results of an empirical study, in which the effects of traditional two-dimensional and three-dimensional VR based feedback scenarios on NF training performance and user experience in healthy older individuals and neurologic patients were compared. In conclusion, we suggest indications and contraindications of immersive VR feedback designs in BCI applications. Our results show that findings in healthy individuals are not always transferable to patient populations having an impact on serious game and feedback design.

Neurofeedback (NF) is a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) application, in which the brain activity is fed back to the user in real-time enabling voluntary brain control. In this context, the significance of the feedback design is mainly unexplored. Highly immersive feedback scenarios using virtual reality (VR) technique are available. However, their effects on subjective user experience as well as on objective outcome measures remain open. In the present article, we discuss the general pros and cons of using VR as feedback modality in BCI applications. Furthermore, we report on the results of an empirical study, in which the effects of traditional two-dimensional and three-dimensional VR based feedback scenarios on NF training performance and user experience in healthy older individuals and neurologic patients were compared. In conclusion, we suggest indications and contraindications of immersive VR feedback designs in BCI applications. Our results show that findings in healthy individuals are not always transferable to patient populations having an impact on serious game and feedback design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study a distributed control strategy that harnesses the highly granular data available in future power systems in order to improve system resilience to disturbances. Specifically, we investigate the role of external energy storage systems (ESSs) in stabilizing the dynamics of power systems during periods of disruption. We consider an information-rich multiagent framework and focus on ESS output control via linear feedback optimal (LFO) control to achieve transient stability. The LFO control scheme relies on receiving timely state information to actuate distributed ESSs in order to drive the synchronous generators to stability. We evaluate the performance of the LFO control on the 39-bus 10-generator New England test power system in the presence of ideal and nonideal conditions including communication latency, finite sampling rate, and sensor noise. The LFO controller is found to have a simple structure, be tunable, and to have fast response to achieving transient stability while being sensitive to information latency and data rate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

New computational methods are proposed in this paper to construct polynomial feedback controllers for the stabilization of polynomial systems with linear input structure around a positive equilibrium point. Using the theory of chemical reaction networks (CRNs) and previous results on dynamical equivalence, a complex balanced or weakly reversible zero deficiency closed loop realization is achieved by computing the gain matrix of a polynomial feedback using optimization. It is shown that the feedback resulting in a complex balanced closed loop system having a prescribed equilibrium point can be computed using linear programming (LP). The robust version of the problem, when a convex set of polynomial systems is given over which a stabilizing controller is searched for, is also solvable with an LP solver. The feedback computation for rendering a polynomial system to deficiency zero weakly reversible form can be solved in the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) framework. It is also shown that involving new monomials (complexes) into the feedback does not improve the solvability of the problems. The proposed methods and tools are illustrated on simple examples, including stabilizing an open chemical reaction network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]