Guided Discussions

Image: Example of a Forum question posed to students to promote critical thinking about real-life applications of the Topic, Sampling Distributions in the course DISC 1011. You may also click the screencast of this topic, a microteaching approach or the full related lecture.

Guided Discussions and Peer Reviews

Interaction in the classroom is very important to me as an educator. Within those interactions, I am keen on creating a safe and friendly atmosphere where my students can engage in critical discussions to gather insights. In this way I have used two approaches to facilitate is:

Guided Discussions - I utilise Forums on the my eLearning page where students can engage in a meaningful rapport surrounding a real life application of a topic.
Target cohorts: I have found this to work quite well with both undergraduate and postgraduate students in smaller cohorts to encourage student engagement at the start of the semester. In the past I used this as a formative assessment, but recently incorporated it in summative assessments in DISC 1011 and BIOL 6206.
Peer Reviews - Since students are usually only privy to feedback from lecturers, I am motivated to drive more student collaborations through peer review feedback.
Target cohorts: This process is particularly useful for my postgraduate students who are engaged in building from Statistical Theory and Analysis to Research Projects and Proposals in PSYC 6013 and BIOL 6206.

See some excerpts of these approaches I have recently employed in various classes in Academic Year 2022/2023. The course outlines and descriptions are available here.

Discussion Forums

BIOL 6206 - Management and Analysis of Environmental Data Science

For more on the course context and description, please see Course Materials.

I provided students with scaffolding and transparency on the graded discussion. This is the first of two discussions where they critically analysed the Statistics field and how it impacts their specific specialization.

I was pleasantly surpised and intrigued by this students' post. I felt like it was an exceptional read but I also mused about if certain AI software was used to generate it or if it was written by the student, due to the nature of some of the words. Nevertheless, I learnt quite a bit about some more technical applications of R software in the biodiversity space.

A peer responded to the previous discussion noting that it was well written. I appreciated the observations the student made about the post and would have encouraged some suggestions to be made as well in the feedback.

Peer Reviews

Peer Review for BIOL 6206 - Management and Analysis of Environmental Data Science

Students were given instructions with scaffolding for this Peer Review Assignment.

Context: Students submitted a one page proposal on the Project Descriptions for an upcoming Guided Project, along with the description of the data set and proposed analyses. Their peers were required to review their project descriptions and ensure they met the guidelines outline in the course outline here.

The purpose of the exercise discussed in class, as well as in the BIOL 6206 course outline. A video was also provided with some clear examples of how to provide constructive peer review feedback for scientific research. It was meant to give students not only a critical lens when it comes to research, but also a preview of what the process of peer review entails when publishing research. I believe this critical thinking bridges the gap into the real word insights that are essential for postgraduate students, who I also assume will publish top class research in international journals. That is the motivation :)

Two different submissions for Student Peer Reviews

Exemplar: I appreciated this students' thorough treatment of his/her peer's work. They went above and beyond for that 1% review :) There was a general comment about the overall Project Description and constructive components for improvements based on the actual instructions provided in the assignment about the type of data required and the investigations needed to carry out the analysis. I shared similar sentiments when I reviewed the students' project description.

Exemplar: Although this students' feedback was short, it was very insightful and the tone and language were both technical and positive. This feedback was very similar to the RISE Model for meaningful and constructive feedback which I use regularly in my courses to give students positive reinforcement and suggestions for improvements. This peer reviewer definitely understood the assignment!

My reflections: What did I learn?

My students showed me their ability to critically reflect in various ways
These postgraduate students in a STEM course usually have little avenue for this type of peer feedback usually and this worked well in a small cohort.
I deem this approach a success as it opened a new lens for my students and myself.

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