Examining the role of feedback messages in undergraduate students' writing performance during an online peer assessment activity

Although the effectiveness of online peer assessment for writing performance has been documented, some students may not perceive or attain learning benefits due to receiving certain types of feedback messages. This study therefore aims to explore the role of feedback messages in students' writing performance. The feedback messages given by 47 undergraduate students in a three-round online peer assessment review were firstly examined by a series of content analyses regarding the affective, cognitive, and metacognitive aspects of the comments. The influences of the feedback messages on the students' performance progression during the three rounds of review were then explored. The results show that cognitive feedback (e.g.,direct correction) was more helpful for the students' writing learning gains than was affective feedback (e.g., praising comments) and metacognitive feedback (e.g., reflecting comments). However, this effect on the students' performance progression decreased in the last stage of the activity.