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Computer support for peer-based methodology tutorials

This paper reports on a study that was designed to explore computer support for peer-based learning in methodology tutorials. In particular, software was developed to organise group discussion, with the aim of leaving students free to concentrate on the more productive elements of group dialogue, and in particular discussing their ideas. Forty-three undergraduate psychology students in groups of 3–4 were given a series of computer-supported methodology tutorials designed to structure their discussion around issues concerning the design of their Honours dissertation. Students gave individual ratings of their reactions to both the software and the tutorial sessions more generally. A sample of their discussions was videotaped and the dialogues analysed. The written assignments in which they detailed their proposed empirical work (the ‘Design Exercise’) were blind marked and compared to a sample of similar assignments from the previous year. The results demonstrated that the computer-supported tutorials resulted in better quality Design Exercises, that the students' dialogues were overwhelmingly task-focussed and substantially transactive, and that their expressed satisfaction was generally high but with a desire for more preparation time before and between tutorials. The implications of the study for the use of computers to support groupwork are discussed.