In
this paper, I intend to discuss the role of feedback in interactions
in a virtual environment along with the various ways it is manifested,
as much within human-to-machine interactions as among members
of a virtual community, giving emphasis to feedback in discussion
groups for educational purposes. This discussion will be followed
by an attempt to classify
the main types of feedback found in data collected in virtual
classes, which were divided into two categories: evaluative and
interactional. The names cited in the examples are all fictitious
to protect the students’ anonymity. Unchanged names are only
the undergraduate course teaching assistant’s and my own
name. All the students have authorized the use of their messages
and the original forms were kept.
