How to Make Computer-Based Feedback More Productive: The Power of Erroneous Solutions

This research aims to expand our understanding of how to facilitate student feedback engagement processes in a computer-based formative assessment environment. In the present research, we designed a new type of elaborated feedback in terms of combining the correct solution and the erroneous solution, and the erroneous solution matched the student’s initial answer. Furthermore, we analyzed whether this feedback had a stronger positive effect than the other three types of feedback containing different complexities of correct information (i.e., Knowledge of Correct Response, Problem-Solving Cues, or Complete Correct Solutions). As predicted, students who received correct and erroneous solutions experienced more positive feedback perceptions, perceived lower extraneous cognitive load and higher germane cognitive load, and achieved higher transfer performance. This research is one of the first that provides empirical evidence for the positive impact of incorporating students’ errors into the feedback design, and this novel insight can extend current theories on how to optimize feedback design to promote students’ active processing and use of feedback.