A communicative learning environment in higher education: video-based spatial reading study supporting architecture students' peer learning

With the incorporation of technological innovations into educational content in higher education, the need for pedagogical design principles to support peer learning processes and achieve the intended learning outcomes has increased. This study focuses on the video-based spatial reading of the shared knowledge that architecture students create with their peers in an online elective course. The study is structured on creating a communicative learning environment for peer learning so that students can perform spatial reading using multimedia tools in group work and build a cognitive vocabulary using interaction analysis. Videos contain information presented in text and graphics that describe both auditory and visual learning channels of spatial reading, and this information is co-created in long-term memory by peer groups. The results outline that students interacted deeply with one another in peer group work while understanding the relationship between space and behaviour. The study points out that video-based spatial reading can be an important tool for peer learning processes in higher education and the communicative learning environment provided can enable architecture students to create collaborative syntheses to better understand the space in their analysis and design processes.