Some physics educators might be interested in a recent post "Re: Peer
instruction in an online setting: evaluation results?" [Hake
(2009)]. The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: Bill Harris, in an EvalTalk post, wrote: "I've used [peer
instruction] in my [face-to-face] teaching of system dynamics, and I.
. . [like others]. . . . have found more favorable results. . . . .
I'll [probably] be teaching a graduate course in Systems Dynamics
this year in an online space. The mix between asynchronous and
synchronous modalities is still to be decided; I like asynchronous,
but I recognize certain benefits of synchronous work, too.. . . . One
of the things I'd like to do is to incorporate peer instruction in
that course, as well. . . . . Do any of you have links to evaluations
done in trying to adapt peer instruction to online teaching? Do you
have links to other descriptions of that approach that don't
necessarily qualify as evaluations?"
Harris is evidently referring to Mazur's "Peer Instruction" (PI) and
not the generic "peer instruction" (pi) that (a) characterizes most
"Interactive Engagement" methods, and (b) might be more amenable to
online implementation than PI. Although I'm not aware of online
examples of PI, two possibly helpful references to such
implementation are "A systems approach to e-learning" [Davis (2009)]
and "Practical Considerations in Online Learning" [Reis (2009)]. In
addition, Rick Parkanay, in his EvalTalk responses to Harris stated
that (a) he had used PI-type instruction in some of his online
courses, and (b) gave seven links relevant such instruction.
But with one possible exception, none of Parkanay's seven links
explicitly discusses rigorous pre-to-posttest gain evaluation of
either PI or pi as adapted to online instruction, even though
face-to-face PI *has* been so evaluated by the Mazur group
<http://tinyurl.com/sbys4>, and face-to-face pi has been so evaluated
by Hake (1998a,b) and many others.
As indicated in "Can Distance and Classroom Learning Be Increased?"
<http://tinyurl.com/2t5sro> : "Instead of measuring pre-to-post test
gains so as to definitively gauge student *learning* in a course,
distance and classroom education researchers. . . . .generally
utilize *low-resolution* measures of students learning, such as
student evaluations of teaching, student self-assessments, and
teacher-made tests and course grades."
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REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2009. "Re: Peer instruction in an online setting:
evaluation results?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://tinyurl.com/ycmf76y>. Post of 30 Sep 2009 17:24:08-0700 to
AERA-L, EvalTalk, Net-Gold, and PhysLrnR.