G’day from WA: Update from the WA Peer Programs Network Group
The WA Branch of the PPN has had 3 online meetings since the lockdown commenced, and we’ve found them very useful and supportive. Usually, we meet face to face at a different WA university every 2 months, however we’ve now decided that every 3rd meeting will be held online, to save on traveling time and make the meetings more inclusive in general.
At our last meeting, we all discussed how we were managing our programs in the online space, and of course the main issue has been the lack of face to face connection with our students/staff, which we all really miss! Some of us have set up weekly online catch ups for them to drop in to, others individual meetings. At Curtin we also ran an online professional development evening, where previous PASS Leaders joined in on Zoom as a panel, to discuss their experiences transitioning to work and give job-hunting advice to the current leaders. Holding it online meant a previous leader who lives in Sydney could join in. The team thought it was a really enjoyable and useful session and found the online environment still very amenable to chatting and joking with each other.
Overall, the WA PPN group has noted that they have felt a little overwhelmed with the move to online, and in some cases, a lot of pressure from their institutions to continually prove that the programs were working online. Overall though, of course we’ve all adapted and found some real positives and great learning experiences that have come from this – in particular, a newfound admiration and inspiration from our students/staff who have proven themselves so flexible, willing to learn, innovative and motivated.
Amanda Smith
Peer Learning Coordinator, UniPASS
Learning Success, University Library, Curtin University
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