Abstract—We adopted 2 theoretical perspectives (goal achievement and information value) to determine the conditions under which people prefer to receive positive or negative feedback information. A quasiexperiment and a survey were conducted to test hypotheses. Based on the perspective of goal achievement and the results of a 2-group quasiexperiment, the findings suggest that goal commitment in the goal-setting stage, mastery strategies used in the goal operating stage, and optimistic expectations and negative emotions during the goal monitoring stage were associated with people’s preference for positive feedback information. In addition, the results indicate that people determining a rate of progress during the goal-setting stage prefer negative feedback information. Based on the perspective of information value and the results of an e-mail survey, the findings indicate that people with proficiency in using an online service prefer negative feedback information, whereas people with basic familiarity of an online service prefer positive feedback information.

Index Terms—Feedback information, goal achievement, information value, e-learning.

Chung-Hui Tseng is with the Department of International Business, Tamkang University, No.151, Yingzhuan Rd., Tamsui Dist., New Taipei City 25137, Taiwan.

Cite: Chung-Hui Tseng, " User Preferences toward Positive and Negative Feedback Information in Online Learning: Goal Achievement and Information Value Perspectives," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 5, no. 4, pp.191-202, 2015.