Learner participation regulation supported by long-term peer moderation and participation feedback during asynchronous discussions

Abstract

Active participation in asynchronous online discussions is crucial for learning, but low student participation remains a persistent problem. This design research project presents two interventions drawn from self/co-regulation and feedback literature: (1) extended peer moderation periods and (2) multimodal participation feedback. In peer moderation, students are assigned as leaders within the discussion and are responsible for posting critical questions. Their active participation influences others through co-regulation. However, assigned moderators may not perform their leadership roles as expected. How moderators facilitate discussion may depend on their own self-regulation since they exhibit self-regulating behaviors of planning, monitoring and evaluating while choosing facilitation strategies. Feedback, like visual representations of students’ participation, enables students to monitor their own participation. Therefore, to support moderators’ development of self-regulation, we developed written guidance for moderating a discussion and feedback to help moderators monitor and facilitate discussions more effectively. To track assigned peer moderators’ participation, we used a computational model using social network analysis. This information was then provided to students as a composite, three-part feedback: a graphic, tabulated participation levels, and textual feedback. We tested our design within a graduate-level asynchronous online course for 12 weeks to study how peer moderators conducted their assigned leadership role during the extended moderation period and how multimodal feedback supported students’ regulation of participation. Results show that not all moderators accepted their roles, but those who did showed high participation levels and leadership behaviors. Dynamic relationships among moderators created different self/co-regulation in the group. Students found the multimodal participation feedback useful for monitoring their participation. From these findings, we propose several design solutions for supporting peer moderators’ development of regulation through scaffolds and multimodal feedback.