An Analysis of Peer Review Response Types in Threaded Discussions of an Online Graduate Class

Abstract

The effectiveness of a peer review process for online graduate students is predicated on a balance between social- and task-directed communications. The defining criteria of learning communities are presented to illustrate the operational meaning of social and the criteria for Critical Thinking used to illustrate the operational meaning of task response types. The social responses were further categorized as an opinion/evaluative or anecdotal/reflective comment and task responses subcategorized as either a content or style comment. The hypothesis that a significant difference would be found between the social and task responses was accepted as was the second hypothesis that there would be a significant difference between the content and style responses.