Remote Peer-Learning
Remote Peer Learning at the University of Brighton
It is so important during these extraordinary and unprecedented times to stay connected with one another digitally, to continue learning together and offering one another encouragement and support. There will be new methods of remote learning, teaching and assessment that we will all be adjusting to over the coming weeks.
We are developing an online version of our ‘Peer Assisted Study Sessions’ (PASS) programme and would like to encourage our trained PASS Leaders to continue or resume running PASS sessions remotely. We are aware that for many PASS groups, you might have already established a WhatsApp or Facebook group to stay in touch via social media in between your sessions; please do continue to socialise through those different channels. However, we would like to recommend using Microsoft Teams as the platform supported by the University going forward, which will be most helpful in enabling you to share your learning and student lives together more informally online.
If you’re reading this and you currently do not have PASS set up on your course, you can still develop your own remote peer learning group for this same purpose. So please continue reading and consider who on your course you could suggest forming a learning group with.
If, in your contact with students in your PASS groups, you encounter students who are in need of any extra support, please do not take this on yourselves but as we discussed in your training, signpost students on to their Student Support and Guidance Tutor – a full list of who to contact in each School can be found here.
Microsoft Teams
With remote teaching, we will all become very familiar with Microsoft Teams over the coming weeks. The software offers flexibility in how you use it and has lots of different functions to adapt to your peer learning needs. Some PASS groups might want to meet up weekly, whilst others just use it as a more informal space to chat whenever. However you use it, we’d suggest that setting up a ‘Team’ for your PASS group would be a great first step.
How do I set up a PASS Group on Microsoft Teams and invite other students to join?
The University’s face to face teaching will be using Microsoft Teams a lot over the coming weeks. Here is the university’s current advice for students in how to use Microsoft Teams: https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is/computing/Pages/Teams.aspx
Just get in touch with your PASS Supervisor or Francesca Thornton (f.s.thornton@brighton.ac.uk) from the PASS Team if you’re having any difficulties and would like some help.
What can Microsoft Teams allow you to do for PASS sessions?
- Weekly drop- ins : PASS Leaders could offer a weekly drop-in session for discussion and Q&A – you could let your students know a specific time slot that you’ll be available.
- One to one and group discussions : can enable one to one, and group discussions, including separate messaging chat and video calls functions
- Channels for themed discussions: perhaps creating channels in your PASS group would be helpful for having discussions and sharing resources about the different aspects of our studying that you would normally cover in PASS. For example you could have a few channels including ‘Study Skills’, ‘Student Life’, ‘Course Content’ depending on what your group wants to focus on.
- Sharing Documents : you can share any Microsoft files, YouTube videos, media and web links, as well as screen sharing during video calls, whilst also using various Apps to make collaborative working easier such as ‘Planner’ or ‘Nearpod’
- Safe Space : your Teams area that you set up is invite only, with no staff oversight, keeping your conversations private just as before. Channels have a few privacy options too so only relevant groups or PASS leaders can access certain channels.
- Notifications: you have the ability to set up notifications, which enables information and messaging to be both more timely and more mobile friendly
What sort of Learning Activities could we do as a Group Remotely?
We would love to hear what activities you decide to do with your students, but here are a few ideas of small group learning activities and use of our ‘PASS Strategy Cards to get you started:
- Strategy Card 4: Visuals – posting photos of your diagrams, concept maps, drawings, portfolio work, timelines, venn diagrams etc – this could be used for revision of course material, informal crits, practicing your presentations etc
- Strategy Card 6: Sharing is Caring – swap experiences of adapting to new remote teaching methods and technologies; adjusting to self-isolation or social distancing; which supermarkets have the pasta in etc – sharing your experiences with one another will help!
- Strategy Card 7: Reading groups – you could divvy out book sections or journal articles to each read, and then re-group online to present to one another what you have learned whilst everyone else listens and takes notes
- Strategy Card 19: Feedback Chat – when students receive digital feedback from tutors on their assessed work, they could discuss this with yourselves and one another, reflecting on what they will apply in their studies going forward
- Strategy Card 19: Cornell Method of Note taking – share tips on how you’re all taking notes whilst listening to lectures remotely, for example the Cornell method is a way of structuring your page to ensure you record key information and references, ask analytical questions and summarise what you have learned; what study skills tips can you share generally in the context of learning remotely?
- Strategy Card 25: Finding Resources – you can share all sorts of documents, media clips, websites that are relevant to your studies, research and learning – this can enable you to work collaboratively on documents, share revision resources, or practice presentations to one another
- Strategy Card 31 Question Time – PASS Leaders could be available at specific drop-in times once or twice a week to answer students’ questions relating to studying and student life