Students' interaction patterns of online dialogic peer feedback from a perspective of community of inquiry: An Epistemic network analysis approach

Dialogic peer feedback has been regarded as a powerful approach to improving peer feedback quality and student learning. However, few studies have examined how students interact with each other when negotiating the meaning of peer feedback. To fill in this research gap, this study explored the dialogues between feedback givers and receivers, which were automatically recorded by an online platform in two assessment courses at a Hong Kong university. It used the framework of Community of Inquiry to code the collected dialogues and analyzed them through epistemic network analysis. The results showed a strong connection between triggering event and exploration in the aspect of cognitive presence and the significant involvement of social presence in these connections. Additionally, students' interaction patterns significantly varied by age, gender and feedback dispositions. The findings shed light on how to scaffold online dialogic peer feedback to maximize its learning effects. Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.