Question 6
The “Stable-pairing” design pattern suggests that when learners need to be paired for multiple peer tutoring sessions, for larger learning gains learners overall, they should be paired such that over long periods of time (e.g. a month), they have the same partner. The “Max-welfare” design pattern suggests that when learners need to be paired for peer-tutoring over multiple sessions, for maximizing the learning gain in each session they should be paired with the partner they are most likely to learn from in that session. If you’re designing a peer tutoring iPhone app where learners can participate in tutoring over any duration, how would you decide which pattern to use?
Choose the option that best answers the question from the list below. Then click "Check answer" on the right.
Max-welfare, because people are flowing fast, you cannot tell who will still be here tomorrow, so it's hard to form stable patterns. Rather, pair people with max gain will be more beneficial.
A/B testing to compare the two design patterns
Since the max welfare design pattern suggests that learners be paired for peer-tutoring over multiple sessions so that they gain the maximum from each other in that session, it would be more optimal.
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Since we are in online media, I would pick max-welfare. The reason is that if learners are not required to come to the same classroom by the same time, then it is very hard to ensure that learners in single pair are able to synchronise. Given that online media often assumes self-paced learning it might also be an issue (i.e. I decide to take vacation and my partner should wait till I return). In contrast, max-welfare makes decision for each session and can pick partner from those who are currently online which is very convenient.