The purpose of this research study is to compare the effects of an instructional
treatment that presented adaptive feedback based on students’ perceptions about their
answer correctness with a nonadaptive treatment on student performance, feedback study
time, and lesson efficiency in a computer-based environment. Because of advances in
technology, the instruction was delivered in a Web-based environment. Two versions of
the Web-based lesson were designed. The lesson consisted of a pretest, a tutorial, and a
posttest. The pre- and posttest were similar in that they tested students’ ability to classify
defined concepts, a higher cognitive task. The tutorial presented instructional text with
inserted verbal information questions. Undergraduate volunteers enrolled in entry level
education courses in the Watson School of Education were randomly assigned to one of
the two treatment groups. One group received varied feedback information based upon
the combined assessment of response correctness and the student’s response certitude.
The other group received feedback information that did not vary. Results indicate that
the effects of adaptive feedback were not significantly different from the effects of
nonadaptive feedback on concept learning. In the adaptive group, high certitude wrongs,
low certitude corrects, and low certitude wrong responses resulted in higher feedback
study time than high certitude correct responses. High certitude significantly correlated
with fine discrimination errors in concept learning. In terms of feedback efficiency,
adaptive feedback was significantly more efficient than nonadaptive feedback; however,
for overall lesson efficiency, there were no significant differences between the two
treatment groups. These results are discussed in terms of cost-benefit implications for the design of effective Web-based instruction. Implications for future research are discussed
in reference to results of this study and past research
