Increasing Access to Quality Learning Through Effective Use of Peer Feedback in Online Discussions

A Purdue University Project supported by the Fund for the
Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE)

 
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Project Overview:

The intent of the project is to prepare students for today's electronically interconnected workplace by promoting student learning, critical thinking, self-direction, and teaming skills through the use of online class discussions augmented by a peer feedback strategy in selected disciplines. Content-based online discussions, currently being tested in courses in several disciplines (including engineering, educational technology, English education, speech and hearing sciences, and veterinary medicine) are being used to augment in-class coverage of topics and focus students on the application, synthesis, and evaluation of subject matter information in order to solve problems relevant to the discipline. Peer feedback is employed as a way to try to improve the overall quality of the online discussions, and so lead to greater student learning, while reducing the demands on the instructor to provide individualized feedback to students. The peer feedback strategy includes use of an electronic tool developed in partnership with Blackboard and modeled after the kinds of Web-based feedback systems used by Amazon and other online retailers.

Baseline data on achievement, critical thinking, and self-directed learning was collected from students in two participating courses prior to the integration of online discussions and peer feedback. In the spring of 2008, a pilot test of the use of online discussions with the peer feedback tool was implemented in the participating courses. Half of the course sections had online discussions with peer feedback and half had online discussions without peer feedback, allowing for comparisons of the effects of the peer feedback. Quantitative data collected included measures of students' achievement, critical thinking, and self-directed learning. Qualitative measures, including interviews and surveys, were also employed to examine students' and instructors' perceptions of the efficacy and value of the peer feedback strategy, the use of online discussions to prepare students to work on projects in virtual teams, and suggestions for improvement for the peer feedback tool and strategy. Analysis of the data has revealed some findings with respect to student use of online discussions.

Full implementation of the peer feedback strategy and tool began in the fall of 2008. Support and training materials are being developed to facilitate dissemination of the peer feedback approach in online discussions more broadly. The materials being developed include online discussion facilitation guidelines and instruction for use of the peer feedback tool for instructors and guidelines for participation in online discussions and using the peer feedback tool for students. The project will disseminate its findings and materials via publications, professional presentations, this project website, and workshop.


Key Personnel:

Principal Investigators
Jennifer Richardson, Associate Professor of Educational Technology
Peggy Ertmer, Professor of Educational Technology

Senior Personnel
James Lehman, Professor of Educational Technology
Timothy Newby, Professor of Educational Technology

Evaluator
Courtney Brown, Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Research, Indiana University

 

Contact:

Peer Feedback in Online Learning Project
c/o Professor Jennifer Richardson
Purdue University
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
100 N. University St.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098

e-mail: jennrich@purdue.edu