Here’s the first of many upcoming research highlights, which will be snapshots of studies about P2PU!
Paper Link: PDF
Citation: Ahn, J., Weng, C., & Butler, B. S. (2013). The dynamics of open, peer-to-peer learning: What factors influence participation in the P2P University? Proceedings of the 46th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (Learning Analytics and Networked Learning track)
The Main Take-away:
This study used P2PU platform data from the Sept 2011 cohort of School of Ed courses. The analysis looked at what features of courses were related to more comment contributions by learners to the courses. The take-away? Course organizers were important in these School of Ed courses, but in different ways for different learners.
For new visitors to your course, well-designed course pages that provide clear prompts for action or activity help them get situated and know what to do. For returning course members (who came back after first signing up), organizer activity (whether you – the course organizer – contribute comments and talk to people) helped encourage them to contribute new comments.