Sessions 1 - 3

Session one and two – both peer assisted learning, but one scheme for teachers and one for students.

Session one (1D): Supporting good first year course design: The First Year Peer Assisted Teaching Initiative (FY PATI). This initiative was based the Six First Year Curriculum Principles (Kitt, 2009) and offers practical support and ideas for teachers in a supportive and collaborative space. The project has been trialled in Newcastle and has been very successful. As well as helping change course design the project helps establish a strong sense of collegiality among teachers/lecturers.

Session two (2C): Peer to peer support for students at risk (Deakin). This project involved activities similar to our student success advisor role, however phone calls to students were made by students. Data is gathered on students deemed to be “at risk”: not attending first two tutorials, not accessing CloudDeakin (like Stream), non-submission of tasks, failure of assessment tasks and unit failure. The “at risk” students are then contacted (by phone) by 2^nd and 3^rd year students. The students making the calls are paid and trained by call centre professionals. The calls are largely positive, and are usually about either sorting out issues then and there (explaining to students where they can find information, or finding it out while on the phone) or referring students to counselling or learning services. Might be a good model for on-campus students but I’m not sure about distance students – also not sure whether the cost of running the scheme would provide benefits over and above what we do now. On the upside, does provide students with “real world” skills, experiences and training (albeit in a call centre, but still the training and experience could prove useful).

Session three:

Session three (3D):  At the University of Western Sydney, they have started providing “pit stop” sessions for students. These are 4 hour sessions delivered 3 times year and focus on delivering information and teaching skills related to particular courses. They involve lecturers, librarians and learning consultants (equivalent of), and are embedded in what students are doing (e.g., one session focuses on literature reviews 5 weeks before the assignment, and another on multiple choice exams two weeks out before the exam). The students really enjoy them. They sound quite similar to our contact courses, and it raises the issue of how we can become more embedded in internal papers – could there be an internal equivalent of the “contact course” for students (a shorter version). Or would that model encroach on distance students’ time (could internal students join contact courses?).