Q and A for Does peer interaction in online tutorials impact the student experience?

Can you explain briefly what your project is/was about?
We are interested in peer engagement in online tutorials, specifically the impact of peer behaviours on student experience. We purposely targeted Level 2 and Level 3 students as most of these students have experienced online tutorials at Level 1 and will have formed preferences regarding interactive activities, peer behaviours and tutorial management. 

What was your inspiration or motivation for doing this project?
Traditionally, the literature on improving students' experience of distance learning focuses on the importance of peer engagement and improving the opportunity for peer interaction. Many OU forums and online tutorials are designed to encourage peer interaction and peer activities. However, scholarship research on forum use shows that the number of students who “passively engage” in forums by reading posts but not responding or creating posts is higher than those who do post (Smith and Smith, 2014). Schofield and Gibsy (2022) looked at reported student study engagement behaviours and found that the more passive an activity was, the more likely it was that a student would engage with it. Students reported that the anxiety of engaging in interactive content in online tutorials and forums caused them to disengage with it. Similar patterns were found by Hunter (2021) and Armor and Mooney (n.d.) who surveyed students about participation in online tutorials. Hunter found that over half of students did not attend online tutorials because they did not feel comfortable and that of students who did attend, more than two-thirds reported feeling some level of anxiety. Armour and Mooney found that a third of students found active participation stressful and many students reported active engagement was not their preferred learning style. These findings suggest peer interaction is a factor in whether a student will attend and feel comfortable in an online setting. Our research expands on these findings, we are interested in the ways different types of peer behaviour impact student experience in online tutorials. 

How did you carry out the project?
We designed a survey based on our experience of observing different peer behaviours in online tutorials. We identified 18 common behaviours which fell into three categories (participatory behaviours, non-participatory behaviours and the role of the tutor). For each behaviour, we asked participants to indicate if they had experienced this in an online tutorial. If they had, we asked them to rate on a 7-point scale how the behaviours made them feel, how likely they were to also engage in the behaviour, how impactful the behaviour was on their experience of the tutorial and how important the behaviour was in influencing whether they will attend future tutorials. We also included an open text box for participants to share any of their experiences of peer interactions in online tutorials. In total 398 level 2 (N = 232) and level 3 (N = 166) Psychology and Counselling students completed the survey.  

What were the key things you learnt from it?

Participants prefer online tutorials where peers engage with the content of the tutorial, respond to the tutor and when peers share positive comments or experiences. Participants reported negative feelings when peers complained or expressed dissatisfaction during a tutorial. Interestingly, whether peer participation was anonymous or not, had little impact. A key finding is the impact of tutorial management, specifically the use of the chatbox. The chatbox, if not appropriately managed or monopolised by students, can cause students to become frustrated and distracted during the tutorial. By understanding students' preferred learning experiences we can adapt tutorials to have different levels of interaction to accommodate students who do wish to actively participate in online tutorials as well as those who do not.  

Will you be following up on the project in any way?

Due to the size of our survey, we have several new avenues of potential research. We could do smaller interviews with some participants from the survey who indicated they would be happy to take part in future research. It would be interesting to carry out research with tutors to hear their experiences of peer engagement in online tutorials and how they manage this.  It would also be interesting to conduct research with students in different schools at the university and at different levels of study to see if there is a shift in student experience of online tutorials. Our next steps are to disseminate the findings from this large study before planning any future research. 

References

Amor, K., and Mooney, A. (n.d.) Online tutorials and active participation – what do students think? SCiLAB Blog available from: https://www5.open.ac.uk/scholarship-and-innovation/scilab/blog/online-tutorials?nocache=65c504765e4c2

Hunter, J. (2021) ‘Understanding how anxiety affects participation in online tutorials,’ FASSTEST Briefing Report available from: https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/FASSTEST/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Project-46-Briefing-1.pdf

Schofield, C., and Gisby, A. (2022) ‘Academic motivation and study engagement’, FASSTEST Report available from: https://openuniv.sharepoint.com/sites/units/lds/scholarship-exchange/documents/project%20report.pdf

Smith, D. and Smith, K. (2014) ‘The case for ‘passive’ learning – the ‘silent’ community of online learners’, European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 17(2), pp. 86-99. doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2014-0021

For further details please contact : Eimear O’Connor and Katie Rix Staff tutors in Psychology and Counselling