Evaluating Peer-to-Peer Learning in the Online and In-Person Classroom
Collaboration is key to sustainable community development and environmental management, and peer-to-peer learning (P2PL) may facilitate community building and collaborative learning skills. An environmentally focused course offered at a public university utilizes P2PL to explicitly facilitate community building and collaborative skills. Changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to evaluate the impact of P2PL on these skills during both virtual and in-person formats. Additionally, we compared in-course student evaluations with students taking other courses with P2PL aspects to understand the wider effectiveness of this course structure. Findings suggest 1) that course format (virtual vs. in-person) overall made no difference in either connectedness or conceptual understandings, and 2) students in either class format felt more connected to others than students taking other courses with P2PL. Thus, we found that scaffolding P2PL and supplemental peer support can yield improved connectedness and learning among students taking environmental coursework.
Dr. Joe Campbell
Lecturer and Director, Environmental Professionals Network, School of Environment and Natural Resources
Kylienne Shaul
Instructional Design Specialist, School of Environment and Natural Resources
Dr. Kristina Slagle
Research Associate, School of Environment and Natural Resources
Dr. David Sovic
Assistant Director, Research-related Programs and IR Coordinator, Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching & Learning