JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Near-peer teaching (NPT) is becoming an increasingly popular pedagogical tool in health professional education. Despite the shift in formal medical education from face-to-face teaching towards encompassing online learning activities, NPT has not experienced a similar transition. Apart from the few reports on NPT programs hastily converted to virtual learning in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, no studies to date have explored online learning in the specific context of NPT.

Objective:

This qualitative study reports on an entirely student-led initiative and aims to examine the nature of interactions between peer learners (PLs), peer teachers (PTs) and subject content during online NPT sessions.

Methods:

Nine PLs and three PTs were interviewed at the end of a 5-month long NPT program for Hong Kong medical students. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to identify recurrent themes.

Results:

Findings indicate that peer learners were engaged and enjoyed the comfort and convenience of online NPT. Yet, interaction between students was poor. PLs believed the online NPT learning process to be a unidirectional transmission of knowledge from teacher to learner, with the teacher responsible for driving the interactions. This was in sharp contrast to PTs’ expectation that both parties shared responsibility for learning in a collaborative effort.

Conclusions:

Student-led online near-peer teaching offers a flexible and comfortable means of delivering academic and non-academic guidance to medical students. Yet, the virtual mode of delivery presents unique challenges to facilitating meaningful interactions between PLs, PTs and subject content. A blended learning approach may be best suited for this form of student-led near-peer teaching program in order to effectively and holistically support students as a supplement to the formal curriculum.