The Role of Discussion Forums and Peer Assessment for Enhancing Team Building Skills and Cognitive Learning

Abstract

In the GenAI era, discussion forums and peer assessment significantly contribute to the educational domain by enhancing collaboration, personalized learning, and critical thinking. Online teaching and learning process has become essential after this Covid-19 pandemic. A few instructors follow a hybrid mode of teaching learning processes and set an adaptive learning environment for the learners. However, handling theory courses is one of the most challenging tasks for the instructors both in traditional as well as in online mode. Students may not give their complete attention and they are easily distracted by other means. Hence, it becomes necessary to prepare a structured course plan with adequate interactive and participative sessions for the learners so that the learning objectives would be met. The plan shall be customized to any mode of learning there on. This article focuses on the DTP Framework-Discussion forum, Team practices and Peer assessment, which sets up a suitable learning environment for the learners for improving their team building skills, and thereby cognitive experience. This article considered Software Engineering course as the case study and demonstrated how the team building activities and peer interactions helped the learners in their academic performance.