Browsing by Author "Jussilainen, Rosa"

Objective of the study. Due to technological development, online learning and online learning environments have made significant strides forward, and online interaction between students has become an important feature in learning. The Toward better learning course, arranged by the University of Helsinki, centers around promoting students’ study skills and comprehensive well-being. There is a demand for it, as students’ mental well-being has declined during the 21st century. The pedagogical methods utilized during the course are personal reflections, group discussions and peer support. The focus of this thesis is the peer-to-peer online communication in the university context. The aim is to examine what kind of interaction and peer support the course enables, and how students perceive them. Methods. The qualitative research material consisted of two parts: the group discussions and the students’ final reports of the course held in the fall of 2020. The online discussion contained 645 individual messages and the final reports were personal reflections written by the students at the end of the course. The study group comprises the groups in which every student (n=32) gave their permission for the research. The material was analysed using data-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. The online interaction between the students was appropriate, positive, and encouraging – although, occasionally, the discussions remained rather inactive. Non-interaction, conversations with strangers, superficial messages, scheduling, and group size caused challenges, but the conversations enabled peer support, sharing tips, getting to know one other, and broadening one’s perspective. Although students’ experiences of the meaningfulness and usefulness of the online interaction varied, the interaction could be considered partially successful. Online interactions as a part of online learning are here to stay, but further research would be needed to ascertain how students’ online interaction and peer-to-peer support could be developed and supported both qualitatively and quantitatively in the university context.