story by Claire Miller
College of Education & Human Development Assistant Professors Min Kyu Kim and Yinying Wang received a $49,618 grant from the Spencer Foundation to study how students become leaders when learning online.
“As a learning tool, online discussion has the potential to foster social learning through lively group interaction. However, little is known about the way students learn ‘together’ in online discussions and take on learner leadership roles by providing constructive feedback, raising probing questions and facilitating learner engagement,” Kim and Wang wrote in their grant proposal, entitled, “How People Develop Learning Leadership: Learner Characteristics, Leadership Styles, and the Dynamics of Asynchronous Online Learning.”
For this project, CEHD researchers will use student surveys and data from two sections of an online course at Georgia State University to learn more about how student leaders develop in online learning settings, what their leadership styles look like and how student leaders impact the whole group of online learners.
“This project will take a data-focused approach to describe and predict how people develop learning leadership and influence each other in online learning communities,” Kim said.
The Spencer Foundation supports high-quality investigation of education through its research programs and is committed to strengthening and renewing the educational research community through its fellowship and training programs and related activities. For more information about their grant programs, visit https://www.spencer.org.