Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 408-417.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.03.11

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Influence of Teacher Feedback Timing and Feedback Complexity on College Students’ Learning Engagement during Online Video Learning

LIU Ying1, LIU Rude2, MAO Chenying1, LIN Jingmin2, LIU Jiabin2   

  1. 1. School of Education, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024;
    2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Published:2026-05-15

Abstract: Regarding the controversial findings about how teacher feedback timing affects learning engagement, it might be due to the moderation of feedback complexity. This study examines the impact of teacher feedback timing (synchronous vs. asynchronous) and feedback complexity (simple vs. elaborate) on college students’ learning engagement during online learning. An event-based experience sampling method was employed in study 1 to collect 984 valid data points during online video learning from 68 sophomore students (Mage=19.01±0.79, 89.71% female) over a period of five weeks. Participants were randomly selected through cluster sampling from two out of ten online and offline blended teaching classes at a university. The results indicated an interactive effect of feedback timing and feedback complexity on cognitive engagement. Specifically, in simple feedback situations, feedback timing was not related to cognitive engagement. Whereas in elaborate feedback situations, immediate/synchronous feedback had a significantly more positive impact on cognitive engagement than delayed feedback. Study 2 used an experimental design, randomly selecting 88 sophomore students (Mage=19.35±0.85, 86.36% female), to further examine the impact of manipulated feedback timing and feedback complexity on learning engagement. The results showed that feedback timing and feedback complexity had an interactive effect on affective engagement. Specifically, in simple feedback situations, feedback timing was not related to students’ affective engagement. However, in elaborate feedback situations, immediate feedback had a significantly more positive impact on affective engagement than the task-completed feedback. This study reveals the moderating role of feedback complexity in the process of learning engagement influenced by different types of feedback timing, thereby deepening the understanding of the complex relationship between teacher feedback and learning engagement.

Key words: feedback timing, feedback complexity, learning engagement, online video learning, college students

CLC Number: 

  • G442
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