Listening to Students: A Usability Evaluation of Instructor Commentary

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2010

Listening to Students: A Usability Evaluation of Instructor Commentary

Brian Still Texas Tech University ; Amy Koerber Texas Tech University

Abstract

Many students see instructor commentary as not constructive but prescriptive directions that must be followed so that their grade, not necessarily their writing, can be improved. Research offering heuristics for improving such commentary is available for guidance, but the methods employed to comment on writing still have not changed significantly, primarily because we lack sufficient understanding of how students use feedback. Usability evaluation is ideally equipped for assessing how students use commentary and how instructors might adapt their comments to make them more usable. This article reports on usability testing of commentary provided to students in an introductory technical writing course.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2010-04-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651909353304
Open Access: Closed
Topics: technical communication

Citation Context

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Also cites 6 works outside this index ↓

10.1109/47.867942

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10.1177/108056990306600110

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10.2307/359079

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10.2307/375445

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CrossRef global citation count: 18 View in citation network →