Comments & Replies: Discussion Forum Interaction Networks Stimulated by Peer-Review Assignments

Social aspects of in-person learning activities such as peer review, group work, and class discussion can better develop connections both between learner and course content and between learner and learner. Online courses however, struggle to maintain these experiences of in-person learning, especially at larger scales in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The lack of a learner network of support and or of collaboration can reduce learner engagement and learner outcomes in an online course. In this work we provide an analysis of the types of connections learners create within MOOCs via interactions in the collaborative discussion forum platform, CrowdLearn (CL). The CL platform is designed to enable peer-review of open-ended assessments that are commonly used to provide a formative learning experience in upper-level courses. Across two instances of an undergraduate-level manufacturing processes online course, a total of 67 learners interacted over 1600 times with the CL platform. We analyzed the peer review and discussion interactions within four learner CL networks, in which, we identified three distinct learner types. Learner types and network structures were used in conjunction with learner outcome data to highlight various trends regarding the effects of using such a platform in MOOCs. We identify relationships that highlight challenges of implementing collaborative discussion forum platforms at scale. Further, we suggest potential areas of future work to overcome some of these challenges.