What About Feedback?

TL;DR

This paper highlights the lack of research on immediate feedback in video conferencing and proposes exploring how adding feedback channels could improve communication effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces a new research direction to study the impact of augmenting video conferencing with immediate feedback channels based on in-person feedback studies.

Findings

Early studies showed non-verbal cues enhance effectiveness

Current research on feedback in digital communication is limited

Proposes future research on feedback augmentation in video conferencing

Abstract

The role of immediate feedback in-group conversations has received scant attention in the recent literature. While studies from the early 1990's suggested that "added information" in the form of non-verbal cues would allow video conferencing to "augment" the audio-only conference in terms of effectiveness, stunningly little follow-on research has been done reflective of the current state of computer mediated communication, video conferencing, "live walls", etc. This article contrasts three studies of immediate feedback in in-person settings as the basis for suggesting a new research program - research to look at potential effects of augmenting video-conferencing with an immediate feedback channel.