Videomail — a personalised approach to providing feedback on assessment to distance learners

Videomail involves lecturers providing feedback on learners' assignments by making a short videotape as an alternative to written comments alone. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of videomail with a small sample of lecturers and distance learners in university programmes. In addition the authors were interested in establishing some principles for the use of videomail from the lecturer's perspective. Using approaches based on Grounded Theory and action research, reactions by lecturers and learners were collected. Videomail was felt to be an extremely valuable and personalised method of obtaining feedback by learners. Lecturers were able to use a wide variety of communication techniques such as self-disclosure and reflection, for example, not available to them using written feedback only. It is concluded that written feedback can be enhanced by videomail and that videomail provides an additional vehicle for student learning and a means of establishing personal contact with learners at a distance.