Marketing

World Wide Web

Mathematics education

Engineering

Neuroscience

Business administration

Social psychology

Face (sociological concept)

Commerce

Joint venture

Peer feedback

China

Pedagogy

Joint (building)

The Internet

Computer science

Business

Computer-mediated communication

Psychology

Political science

Value (mathematics)

Sociology

Architectural engineering

Medicine

Interpersonal communication

Medical education

Perception

Machine learning

Higher education

Corrective feedback

Social science

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

Feedback practices for students' speaking activities in an online environment are very different from those on-site. This study investigated online feedback practices for speaking skills in a Sino-UK joint-venture university, as well as teachers and students' perceptions of the practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four teachers and 11 students on a discipline-specific English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. Overall, e-feedback was perceived as less effective than face-to-face feedback, which was mainly due to a lack of interpersonal ties. A range of specific e-feedback types was used; each type elicited both positive and negative perceptions, which were influenced by the nature of feedback type, opportunities for communication and psychological issues. This study concludes that for e-feedback to have the equal potential for clarifying expectations as face-to-face feedback, practitioners need to be well informed of the features of different types of e-feedback, and carefully choose the most appropriate type according to the learning outcomes and students' preferences. Students also need to develop an e-feedback literacy to fully use such feedback.

‘We lose a lot of value’: feedback on English for academic purposes speaking skills in online teaching in a UK-China joint-venture university