Peer Assisted Learning & STEM > Adopter Universities - Setting up PAL schemes

Adopter Universities - Setting up PAL schemes

Due to the success of the Peer Assisted Learning & STEM project, the project leaders (Chris Keenan of Bournemouth University and Lisa Benjamin of University of Bath) gained additional funding from the National HE STEM Programme's Practice Transfer Adopters scheme to support the establishment of PAL at other universities.

Four institutions were successful in their bids to set up their own PAL schemes, as follows:

University of Bradford
University of Exeter
University of Liverpool
Plymouth University

The Adoption Process

Over a five month period, the project leaders provided a range of face-to-face, email and telephone support to aid the adopter universities in their plans to establish PAL schemes. The project leaders also provided links to other sources of expertise (for example, the National Centre for Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) at the University of Manchester) and some of the adopters took advantage of various outputs provided by the project, including:

The project leads have written a meta-evaluation which captures the adoption process and which draws out the key learning from, and impact at, the adopter universities. This meta-evaluation can be downloaded below, followed by individual reports from each of the adopers.

PAL Adopters - Meta-evaluation

PAL Reports from Adopters

The PAL schemes will all launch in the 2012 - 2013 academic year. However, adopters were asked to report on their progress-to-date in June 2012. The below reports therefore capture issues such as: planning the PAL scheme; working with critical friends; encouraging academics to support the scheme; planning PAL leader recruitment; planning PAL leader training etc.

University of Exeter - PAL for 1st Year Pure Mathematics Modules

Scheme to involve all first year students (on a voluntary basis) - 200 students
21 PAL leaders recruited
1st year students will be placed into groups of 25 with each group managed by 2 second year volunteer PAL leaders
PAL sessions will run weekly
PAL leaders will meet on a weekly basis to feed back their experiences. They will receive two full days of training before the start of term and will have one of their sessions observed at least once during the course of the year

For further information, see the report below and / or contact Dr Gihan Marasingha at g.marasingha@exeter.ac.uk

Exeter PAL Report

University of Liverpool - PAL for 1st Year & International Students across Chemistry & Mathematics Modules

Scheme to involve some 215 students across Mathematics and Chemistry
High number of PAL applicants, even though the role is not paid
Each PAL leader assigned to a group of 5 - 6 students
Two weekly drop-in sessions will be held in large seminar room with PAL leaders present to help students with particular modules. One drop-in session will be assigned to help first year students and the other to help second year international students
Group of undergraduate students recruited to provide introductory leaflets to introduce PAL to new students in an introductory lecture during the welcome week

For further information, see the report below and / or contact Dr Gita Sedghi at g.sedghi@liverpool.ac.uk

Liverpool PAL Report

Plymouth University - PAL for Year 0 & Year 1 Students of Mathematics & Statistics Degrees

Scheme to involve up to 160 students, with academics working alongside learning development specialists
PAL leaders currently being recruited through application forms and expectations workshops - 22 applications received to date
PAL leaders will work in pairs, delivering regular sessions (that are opt-out not opt-in) that are followed up by debriefs with PAL staff
PAL leaders will attend 3 training sessions run by Learning Development and one by academic staff in September 2012

For further information, see the report below and / or contact Dr David Graham at D.Graham@plymouth.ac.uk

Plymouth PAL Report

University of Bradford - PAL for Level 1 Computing Students in the School of Computing, Informatics & Media

Scheme to involve approximately 150 students, alongside 15 volunteer PAL leaders
Significant involvement of staff - 14 in total (5 from central services and 9 school / course staff)
PAL to start from induction week and to consist of 1 hour, fortnightly timetabled sessions over semester 1 and hopefully into semester 2
PAL leaders to be either 2nd or 3rd year students (some of whom will have completed a placement year)
PAL sessions timetabled in large rooms with several groups in them – this is partly due to room resource issues but also so that Leaders can work together / merge groups if attendance is low

For further information, see the report below and / or contact Ruth Lefever at r.lefever@bradford.ac.uk. Ruth has also kindly provided a reflective account of her experience of establishing the PAL scheme, which can also be accessed below.

Bradford PAL Report

Bradford PAL - Reflective Log