Further Information: Peer learning is an accepted way of increasing skills and built into the design of courses.
What is Peer learning?
Peer learning is a form of co-operative learning involving learner interaction where learners support each other during the learning process. It is now an accepted and often integral part of a course and has proved to be extremely advantageous in terms of helping learners to develop skills and confidence and achieving learning outcomes.
In order for peer learning to take place, there should be opportunities for the learners to work together on problems and projects. Good peer learning opportunities are those where the learners are encouraged to discuss issues, explain their viewpoints and engage in co-operative learning by working in teams on problems and projects.
How does it work in a face to face situation?
To facilitate successful peer learning in a face-to-face situation, teachers/trainers may choose from an array of strategies such as:
- Buzz Groups: A large group of learners is subdivided into smaller groups of 4–5 learners to consider the issues surrounding a problem. After about 20 minutes of discussion, one member of each sub-group presents the findings of the sub-group to the whole group.
- Affinity Groups: Groups of 4–5 learners are each assigned particular tasks to work on outside of formal contact time. At the next formal meeting with the trainer, the sub-group, or a group representative, presents the sub-group’s findings to the whole group.
- Solution and Critic Groups: One sub-group is assigned a discussion topic for a tutorial and the other groups constitute ‘critics’ who observe, offer comments and evaluate the sub-group’s presentation.
- Teach-Write-Discuss: At the end of a unit of instruction, learners have to answer short questions and justify their answers. After working on the questions individually, students compare their answers with each other’s. A whole-group discussion subsequently examines the array of answers that still seem justifiable and the reasons for their validity.
How can peer learning work in an e-Learning context?
All of the above good practice can be achieved in an e-Learning context through the use of the following Web 2 technologies:
- Collaborative Work Spaces eg Yahoo groups: For information about Yahoo groups see Wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Groups
- Wikis: For information about What is a wiki? try this YouTube video.
- Blogs: For information about What is a Blog? try this YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXIEmail groups
- Twitter: For information about twittering try this YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o
- The use of live online discussions using Skype
- Video conferencing
- Podcasting:For information about Podcasting try this YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0
As an example, the NHS East of England will produce, for consultation with the county special interest groups, a briefing pack by September 2009 that will include:
- best practice with reference to e-Learning
- quality assurance
- training options for NHS staff in production of podcasts, including expertise in higher education partners
- a podcasting module for the regional Virtual Learning Environment and Dialogue
- hosting options for podcasting
- administration and access.
These methods will enable learners to have diverse opportunities to learn from each other in a reasonably safe and unconstrained context (while perhaps being evaluated by another group and the trainer).
Many teachers or trainers may still be new to what tools are available on the Internet and how to use them effectively and you may need to think about offering training and support before they are introduced.
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