Students’ Perception and Preference on Corrective Feedback in Online Writing Classes

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the method of learning from face-to-face to online learning on a global scale. The ways in which teachers provide feedback to students, such as corrective feedback (CF) in writing class, has also automatically shifted. Although CF has been widely discussed in previous studies, its practice in an online setting as well as students’ perceptions and preferences toward it, are still underexplored. Simultaneously, the information about students’ favourable inclination towards the CF practice is essential to inform the teachers about instructional best practices in writing (Chen et al., 2016). Therefore, this study aims to investigate students’ preferences and perceptions of CF in online writing classes by involving 272 students who took the English 3 (Academic Writing) course at President University, Indonesia. An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was employed by
involving closed- and open-ended questionnaires adapted from Lee (2008) using Google Forms. The quantitative data were analysed using a pivot table, while NVivo 12 software was utilized to analyse the qualitative data. The results revealed that more than 75% of participants perceived the practice of online CF positively. Grammar is the most desirable kind of error to be corrected due to the lack of grammar knowledge. Furthermore, locating the error and indicating the types of error becomes the most preferred CF technique for students. Comments on grammar and content suggested by the course instructors are the most favoured types of comments, and they are the ones that most students will carefully read and subsequently address. For future CF practice, students expected to receive written feedback, explanation, and grades. Recommendations for further research and practice are also discussed in this study.