Using Peer Teams to Lead Online Discussions

By Liam Rourke, Terry Anderson. 2002

234 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: This study investigated an online course in which groups of four students were used to lead online discussions. The teams were examined for their ability to bring instructional design, discourse facilitation, and direct instruction to the discussions. The setting was a graduate-level communications networks course delivered asynchronously to a cohort group of 17 adults enrolled for professional development education. Interviews, questionnaires, and content analyses of the discussion transcripts indicate that the peer teams fulfilled each of the three roles and valued the experience. Students preferred the peer teams to the instructor as discussion leaders and reported that the discussions were helpful in achieving higher order learning objectives but could have been more challenging and critical. Editors: Xiufeng Liu (U. Prince Edward Island, CA) Reviewers: Martha Gabriel (U. Prince Edward Island, Canada), William Hunter (U. Calgary, Canada), Gilly Salmon (Open U., UK)

Subfields: Communication, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7b32b32832ed9d858a7cdb0f462425742055ee66

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In Communication

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Education

Citations in the corpus

Towards a Theory of Online Learning (2004, background): “Work related to peer tutoring, by Resnick (1996) and others, illustrates the benefits that can result for both tutor and learner from a variety of forms of “reciprocal teaching.” In our work, we found that student-led teams can result in higher levels of cognitive, social, and even teaching presence”
Learners' Perspectives on what is Missing from Online Learning: Interpretations through the Community of Inquiry Framework (2006, background): “Based on content analysis of postings in asynchronous discussion forums they proposed a number of indicators for each type of presence (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001; Garrison et al., 2001; Rourke & Anderson, 2002; Rourke et al., 1999).”
Online Learning in Higher Education: a review of research on interactions among teachers and students (2003, background): “Rourke and Anderson (2002) conducted a study of a graduate course in communications.”
Online and Blended Communities of Inquiry: Exploring the Developmental and Perceptional Differences. (2009, background): “The students in the study of Rourke and Anderson (2002) also found peer-led discussions more responsive, more interesting, and more structured compared to instructor-led discussions.”
Teaching In An Online Learning Context (2004, background): “We have seen much greater levels of participation, motivation, and student satisfaction when discussion groups are led by student moderators (Rourke & Anderson, 2002).”
Understanding cognitive presence in an online and blended community of inquiry: Assessing outcomes and processes for deep approaches to learning (2011, background): “The premise was that distribution of teaching presence through student moderation can attenuate the authoritative influence of a teacher and encourage freer discussion (Rourke & Anderson, 2002).”
Investigating students' perceptions of motivating factors of online class discussions (2017, background): “In contrast to previous studies in which the class preferred to have a classmate lead the online discussion (Rourke & Anderson, 2002; Seo, 2007; Tagg, 1994), in our study, the participants showed a low level of interest in having themselves or a class member facilitate the online discussion…”