Reports from the Front
Reports from the Front
We asked the network to share their experiences of the recent move online for all Peer Programs; the challenges met, changes made, the setbacks, and the successes. We encourage
Here are some of the the responses from PPN practitioners we have received so far:
Leigh Pickstone’s experience (University of Southern Queensland)
Peer learning at USQ has been offered online and face to face for many years, however the current environment resulted, as for all universities, in a completely online experience. Our peer learning programs have continued to support students throughout the current circumstances, and the experience of our student leaders in online learning provided excellent capital to underpin the necessary changes. We moved all face to face peer supports online, utilizing zoom and student forums.
The challenge of greatest note has been the sheer number of changes faced by our student leaders, our students, and the broader university. Many students moved to online study for the first time, with very little time to prepare. Students and student leaders faced not only changes in study mode, but also radical shifts to their home environments, home schooling responsibilities, and income.
A community of practice has been built over time in the peer learning program at USQ, and these connections have proven especially valuable during this time of social distancing. Through the communication practices already established, student leaders have been able to share their concerns, and to encourage each other. From my perspective, it has been these COP communication practices, alongside connections between students, academic staff, and professional staff, that have built resilience and success.
Lynette Pretorius’s experience (Monash University)
As part of my role, I facilitate writing groups where students receive peer-feedback on their writing. These groups have always met in a face-to-face modality, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, I have had to move these groups online. We now meet through Zoom and provide feedback through the Google Docs platform. We also have a catch-up session before and after where we just talk about the challenges the students faced during the preceding two weeks. I have been surprised at how effective these online writing groups have been. While I would still prefer to have the face-to-face sessions to help foster a sense of community during the traditionally isolated PhD, I believe the online environment is an effective vehicle for this type of teaching. We will continue to meet online for the rest of the year, since several students are currently stuck overseas due to border closures.
Amanda Smith’s experience (Curtin University)
I manage the PASS peer learning program at Curtin University, we have 40 casual staff (who are all students), supporting 29 units with initially 60 sessions a week this semester. We had fortunately commenced a small online PASS sessions pilot in 2019, so had prepared Blackboard Collaborate training for Peer Learning Facilitators (PLFs, often called PASS Leaders) for that purpose. We rolled out that training to all staff in weeks 4 and 5 of semester. Curtin’s VC had the foresight to set week 5 as an extra tuition free week – allowing a tuition free period for all academic and support staff to scramble to get their services and classes online. This was very beneficial for our program, as we used that time to train staff and sort out how best to communicate, manage attendance and run sessions online. Since then, we had to cancel about 10 sessions due to low attendance, and have struggled to maintain attendance in some units, while getting great numbers (for example, 30 in a med school unit) to others.
We have been incredibly impressed at and proud of the way the PLFs took up the challenge of the online space with only a week’s notice and 2 hours training. They all had a very positive attitude about taking up this new challenge, and were excited to try new activities and engage students in the online space. Some have since become less enthusiastic due to either low attendance or difficulty engaging students (hardly any use their cameras and not many are keen to turn on their microphones – preferring to use the chat function). However, there has been some great feedback – students have been very positive and grateful about having the sessions continue, and in some sessions have been very engaged and really keen to take part. One PLF got caught up in her study and forgot to go to her session until 1/2 hour after the start time, only to find the regular students in the session, chatting and sharing notes and helping each other with study!
There have been some great activity ideas come out of this, from using private chat to give students a topic to draw in Pictionary, to using the mouse to draw surprisingly detailed and accurate diagrams of the anatomy of the knee. We’ve shared our ideas and inspiration with some very grateful academic staff.
Overall, the lower attendance at online sessions is not surprising – at Curtin we think students attend PASS because it’s something different to their lectures and tutes – but when everything is online, that difference is much reduced. Also, with the move to open book, online exams, and in many cases a pass/fail grade offered in place of a grade (that then does not effect the course weighted average), the desire to get a great grade (one of our PASS program’s major promotional strategies) is not as strong.
We’ve learned that many students do prefer the face to face interaction with their peers that our program offers, and also that the move to online was a challenge for many students, and so on top of the general challenges of life in lockdown, fears of sickness and missing loved ones, academic achievement was probably not top of the list this semester for a lot of students. However, having said that, we’ve also had a large number of students very keen to attend sessions, stay connected and really get the most out of their study this semester. We’ve also learned that the team of PLFs who work for us are an amazingly flexible, resilient, motivated and inspiring bunch of students!
Experience of Anonymous (Institution unknown)
It’s been incredibly challenging.
We went from delivering a huge 300+ mentors with over 1500 unique students visits volunteer face to face service supporting well over 100 subjects per semester to almost nothing. Our PASS program whilst very modest in size supporting only five subjects could not be funded. This all happened within days of finishing training and onto delivery for both PASS and our volunteers. With such a large volunteer program and a very small team we were ill-equipped to transition that program online in such a short time.
Fortunately we were able to continue our program at a global partner institute which was delivered in a combo of face to face and online, but as the face to face offering was removed mentors disengaged (the program provided a great sense of community for them). As coordinators were offering more in Canvas and online support students were getting enough additional help. This further lead to disengagement from mentors and with the service. We also rely on lecturers regularly reminding students they can get peer help, this fell away too as all their energy was channeled in course delivery. Looking ahead at semester two we’ve reflected on how we deliver support to this cohort and with some minor changes we hope to boost engagement once again.
One shining light is that over the past few months we’ve been piloting a mentoring app that has the potential to provide peer support to all students in the uni, locally and globally. One subject had fantastic levels of engagement in the pilot, the other not so much which is sadly reflected in engagement across entire programs and whole schools. Seeing the potential benefit and ease of gaining access to peer support ‘in your pocket’ and at any time of day is amazing. The economic impact of Covid-19 on the sector will no doubt be a big factor in the uni deciding to spend money on the app. We will soon know.
Next semester we will be delivering something in some way…..it could be through an app or it could be through our current chat/ticketing system used by the uni. Or it could be a combination of both. With the app we can go all out, with any other online alternative we will significantly reduce our offering to around 10 -12 subjects to ensure mentors can be adequately trained and supported and the team doesn’t burn out from administrative stress.
Training online is looking like a good challenge and I think the mentors having experienced a semester online will really be able to drive it and the team will be able to learn a lot from their input along the way. The online delivery of training will also enable mentors O/S and interstate to join the program as previously they needed to be on campus in O week. This is one positive.
Leave a Reply