Abstract

This paper aims to examine students’ reactions to formative (i.e. face to face, audio, wiki and live, email) feedback. This approach is used to improve students’ communication and critical-thinking skills and to encourage independent learning. This paper provides empirical evidence from 327 students in three postgraduate units (‘IS’, ‘TI’, ‘ITS’), and two undergraduate units (‘BT2’, and ‘BT25’). The practical evidence is based on quantitative and qualitative data derived from two sources: informal and formal. The outcomes indicated that students’ levels of satisfaction had increased, and students started to learn from their own mistakes to improve the next submission, and their independent learning skills were enhanced in terms of writing, research, using endnote software, teamwork, collaboration and interaction, and oral presentation. Finally, a new model “Foster Student Independent Learning Model (FSILM)” is created to implement fosters students' independent learning in higher education.