Decentralized and Dynamic: The Sociomaterial Flow of Peer-Led Learning in Digital Spaces.

INTRODUCTION

Social media has transformed medical education by facilitating learner-led digital communities that co-construct knowledge. Previous studies position it as a passive information delivery tool. This fails to capture complex relationships between learners and technologies that may create new potentials for learning, teaching, and participation in the educational process. Our aim was to explore the interactions and patterns of information flow emerging within "What is, this is" (WITI), a social media-based peer teaching community of medical students.

METHODS

This was a qualitative study using a digital ethnography approach. We collected multiple sources of data comprising screenshots of WITI pages (n = 35), observations of participant interactions on WITI, and individual semi-structured interviews (n = 14). Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis with relational transfer as a theoretical framework.

RESULTS

We identified three themes: 1) engagement in a connective space; with 2) decentralization of knowledge and authority; leading to 3) co-production of knowledge as a community. We found that learners actively shaped the use of social media technology and learner practices were patterned by social media affordances in a dynamic and symmetric relationship. This gave rise to a decentralized, collaborative and self-regulated knowledge-sharing digital community wherein the roles of teachers and learners were fluid and non-exclusive.

DISCUSSION

Our study provides insight into new and potentially disruptive learning practices and teacher-learner relationships within student-led digital learning spaces. Our findings highlight the potential of social media to support peer teaching amongst medical students, and the need to reimagine the role of the medical educator as a guide for, and collaborator with, students.