Seeking feedback in blended learning: competitive versus cooperative student attitudes and their links to learning outcome

Emerging research has revealed the impact of electronic media usage on student outcomes, such as satisfaction and reported learning efficacy. However, little is known of its impact on measurable knowledge acquisition. Results from this study showed that participation on discussion topics through Blackboard, an electronic discussion forum, predicted multiple-choice test performance. In contrast, none of the traditional face-to-face feedback-seeking behaviours, neither with professors in class or out of class, nor among fellow students, had significant influence on test results. An examination of underlying attitudes driving both electronic and face-to-face feedback-seeking behaviours showed that competitiveness rather than cooperation drove average intensity of electronic board participation, which in turn, was related to participation across the number of electronic topical forums. The influencing role of competitiveness in this undergraduate student sample may indicate undergraduate students' lack of workplace experience, where cooperation rather than competition is often needed for workplace effectiveness. This and implications of other findings are discussed in the paper.