Article Preview
TopLiterature Review
The role of an online facilitator is traditionally fulfilled by the instructor. While instructors may play an important role in facilitating online asynchronous discussion, not all researchers agree that this might be the best choice. First, not all instructors are able to dedicate the time and energy to facilitate the discussions (Correia & Baran, 2010). Second, a discussion that is instructor-facilitated may result in instructor-centered discussion (Light, Nesbitt, Light, & White, 2000), and limit students’ participation and voice (Zhao & McDougall, 2005).
One possible strategy to circumvent these concerns is to use students or peers to facilitate the discussion. A limited number of researchers have begun to examine the use of peer-facilitation (e.g., Correia & Davis, 2007; Hew et al., 2010; Rourke & Anderson, 2002). The findings of these studies have found that students generally feel more comfortable to vocalise their views, brainstorm ideas, and challenge each other’s ideas in a peer-facilitated discussion environment. In the following section, I briefly summarize findings from these previous studies on what motivates students to contribute in peer-facilitated online discussion forums.