Taking Peer Assisted Learning out of the classroom Makis Malliris Dean of Students Office University of the West Of England Raphael Nagel PAL Leader

Presentation Outline Current Research Case Study for STEM SW PAL Leader skills for Online Peer Support Findings from Online-PAL pilot in 2009-10 at UWE

Aims of the STEM-SW Project Research into the particular benefits of PAL for students studying HE STEM programmes with an emphasis on the benefits for students from Widening Participation backgrounds into the benefits for mentors for example, in confidence building, acquisition of graduate attributes and enhanced employability Investigate different models of PAL including the development of an On-line approach

How PAL operates at UWE PAL leaders are trained PAL leaders are supported both centrally and by a member of the module teaching team Embedded: PAL sessions are timetabled Academic focus: supports learning through small group discussions where content is drawn from existing course materials (lecture notes, workbooks, textbooks etc..) Academic recognition

Literature review Journals Interactive media in Education Computer assisted learning Innovations in Education and Teaching International Asynchronous Learning Network Educational Computing Research Educational Technology Systems Distance Education ( American) Adult Learning ( Australian) Instructional Science Artificial Intelligence in Education

Why worry about the intricacies of peer interaction? Who is learning? Conceptualisation of the role of peers How can we know what occurs in groups? What has been learnt? What changes as a result of the interaction?

Aims of the case study To evaluate whether PAL can be delivered effectively in an online format. To evaluate the suitability of the chosen software for online PAL delivery. To evaluate the impact that online PAL delivery has on the work load of the PAL leaders. To investigate whether online delivery affects the group dynamic during a PAL session. To investigate how online delivery of PAL might affect how knowledge is transferred amongst the group. To determine the scalability of online PAL for future roll out.

Microsoft Lync

The Online Approach at UWE Identify the skills needed for effective peer learning through online forums Compare these with skills needed for effective face-to-face peer learning Explore the onward implications for assessment of these skills

Online-skills for PAL Leaders Socio-affective Initiate, participate, share , acknowledge Organisational Plan, draw on course, draw on experience Interactive process management Role clarification, request, give feedback, reinforce Cognitive interactive Generate ideas, guide Reflective evaluative Reflect, assess, summarise, meta-cognition