Online peer conferences: a window of opportunities for feedback on writing

Abstract

The pandemic has had quite an impact on the way we teach and learn. During that time, Brazilian universities implemented remote learning for more than 15 months. While the initial move was a reaction to an emergency and saw the transposition of many classes to the virtual mode, the following months saw the flourishing of initiatives that enhanced learning by streamlining the use of digital technology. In this context, this descriptive qualitative study employs an exploratory multiple case approach to investigate the affordances in the digital context tertiary students use to facilitate engagement with computer-mediated peer feedback during a course of academic literacies in English at a university in Brazil. Data come from individual semi-structured interviews, online peer-to-peer feedback meeting recordings, and retrospective individual interviews with three pairs of students. The participants are tertiary learners who had two online meetings, using Google Meet, to discuss their peer feedback on two texts they wrote for the course over one semester. Results indicate that online peer conferences offer a multimodal communication channel where different semiotic aspects play a role in mediating written input. In addition, WhatsApp was extensively used for informal peer feedback. We conclude with pedagogical implications and suggest actions so that learners can harness the full potential offered by these tools.