Student Perceptions of Open Pedagogy in Higher Education: A Factorial Survey Experiment on Presentation Format, Feedback Type, and Sharing Mode

Abstract

The principles associated with Open Pedagogy are often presented as goals for higher education teaching, yet their acceptance depends on how students perceive such designs in learning situations. Since openness is typically enacted through a constellation of pedagogical features, it remains unclear how students integrate multiple openness-related design elements in realistic course settings. This study examined how variations in seminar design, specifically presentation format (individual vs. group presentation), feedback source (lecturer vs. peer feedback), and sharing mode (internal course sharing vs. external sharing on an open platform), shape students’ evaluations. An exploratory factorial survey experiment was conducted with 184 students enrolled in higher education institutions in German-speaking countries. Vignette data were collected via an online survey and analyzed using cumulative link mixed models to account for the ordinal response structure and repeated evaluations. The findings indicate that group presentations and lecturer feedback enhance perceived appeal, while external sharing of student work was associated with higher ratings of distinctiveness and perceived societal impact. Personality traits moderated some associations, particularly for evaluations of perceived impact, indicating that openness-related practices are not evaluated uniformly across students. The results suggest that different openness-related design features activate distinct evaluative logics in students’ assessments.