Comparing interteaching and discussion forums in an asynchronous online classroom

Abstract

The current study compared the effects of interteaching and discussion forum activities on quiz and assignment scores in a master's‐level asynchronous research methods course. In an alternating‐treatments design, six participants engaged in interteaching on half of the weeks and in the discussion forum on alternate weeks. Participants in the interteaching condition (M = 96.75) generally scored higher on quizzes than did those in the discussion forum condition (M = 75.95). The results of a paired‐sample t test indicated statistically significant differences between the two conditions at p < .0001, with a substantial effect size of 0.6760. Significant differences in assignment scores were not observed between the interteaching (M = 87.28) and discussion forum (M = 89.08) conditions. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.