Promoting Peer-to-Peer Synchronous Online Discussions: Case Study of Intercultural Communication in Telecollaboration

Introduction

With increases in the number of online and blended learning courses, many instructors and researchers are exploring ways to foster peer-to-peer online discussion through well-designed and purposeful online activities, many of which unfold among peers within synchronous discussion platforms (Helm, 2013, 2016; Kang & Im, 2013; Moore, 1989; Woo & Reeves, 2007). Peer-to-peer interaction plays a critical role in many online learning contexts, particularly in language education in which fostering opportunities for written and oral communication are key objectives shared by teachers and students. Instructors and researchers have therefore focused attention on creating such interactive and collaborative opportunities particularly through a variety of synchronous and asynchronous technologies so that participants have opportunities for virtual learning across cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries as they develop the intercultural skills associated with intercultural communication (Belz, 2003; Bohinski & Leventhal, 2015; Guth & Helm, 2010; Slaouti & Motteram, 2006).

This chapter offers a key contribution to this volume in an examination of how to maximize the affordances of synchronous communication in order to promote peer-to-peer synchronous discussions. To that end, the project is localized in the context of language education with in a particular case of a telecollaboration, an online exchange between participants in different geographic, linguistic, and cultural contexts. Peer-to-peer online discussions—those that lead toward opportunities for learners to engage in intercultural communication—hold untapped potential for participants to learn how to initiate, sustain, and engage in complex discussions around topics of joint interest. Unlocking this potential challenges instructors to develop a better understanding of the ways in which classroom-based pedagogical structures can support collaborative learning online among peers. In this effort, the study responds to the call by Levy and Moore (2018) to view task design as “a starting point for learning” by extending opportunities for learners to “interpret tasks and (inter)act in task-based activity to create their own learning opportunities” (p. 2).

To achieve the promotion of high-quality online interactions, instructors need a better understanding of how to purposefully design online discussion tasks and facilitation protocols. The use of protocols can provide structured guidance to engage learners in online interactions and facilitate their learning process (Chen, deNoyelles, Patton, & Zydney, 2017). Facilitation protocols sit at a strategic crossroads for instructors; on the one hand, they communicate the instructor’s view of the interactional purpose and set a particular overarching tone; and on the other hand, participants need enough freedom to co-produce knowledge without putting unnecessary constraints on the emergence of authentic, learner-driven conversations (Darabi, Liang, Survavanshi, & Yurekli, 2013). Well-designed protocols; therefore, balance these goals that provide guidelines without forcing straitjackets so that peer-to-peer interactions can fulfill pedagogical and personal goals (McDonald, Zydney, Dichter, & McDonald, 2012). To address these concerns, researchers have explored ways to structure classroom-based online discussions to better support participants in initiating and sustaining online discussions (Fuchs, Snyder, Tung, & Han, 2017; Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013; O’Dowd, 2016b).

The goal of this chapter is to examine the ways in which teachers in a qualitative case study engage in peer-to-peer online discussions through purposeful task and protocol design that explicitly layer in reflective synchronous conversations. Its particular focus is on distance learning contexts in which participants communicate across distinct and geographically distal locations. Hence, the study explores ways that both multimodal technologies of video sharing as well as real-time videoconferencing can serve as vehicles for engaging learners around explicitly designed facilitation protocols. To this end, the following questions frame this study:

• 1.

  What are the major challenges associated with integrating peer-to-peer, small-group discussions into the context of online learning?

• 2.

  How can facilitation protocols be structured into synchronous, small-group interaction activities as part of the overall structure of online learning?