Abstract

• This project is a collaborative implementation and evaluation of PASS (Peer Assisted Study Session) across three different units including the Office of University General Education (OUGE), The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care (SPHPC) and the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBS).


• PASS consists of weekly one-hour, voluntary study sessions led by “PASS Leaders”, students who excelled at the same course in the past. PASS Leaders do not teach but serve as facilitators for group studying under an engaging learning environment.


• PASS has been piloted in the General Education Foundation (GEF) Programme and seven subjects in the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK with positive evaluation from both participating students and PASS Leaders. PASS effectively enhances students’ subject knowledge, independent learning skills and increases their confidence and motivation. Meanwhile, PASS leaders can strengthen their communication and leadership skills.


• This project aims to implement PASS in a larger scale to benefit more CUHK students, with adaptation in the context of different subjects in CUHK. Both OUGE and SPHPC plan to increase the number of PASS sessions in the coming academic year, and the latter will also increase the number of courses supported by PASS.


• A regular and systematic evaluation on the effectiveness of PASS will be conducted to monitor and adjust the implementation. The findings in this project will be disseminated in seminars in CUHK as well as international conferences and journals.

Brief write-up

Project objectives

This project is a collaborative implementation and evaluation of PASS across three different units including the Office of University General Education, The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care and the School of Biomedical Sciences. This project aims to implement PASS in a larger scale, with adaptation in the context of different subjects.

Activities, process and outcomes

(i) 10 PASS Leader Training Workshops and 2 Advanced PASS Leader Training Workshops were conducted to train more than 60 PASS Leaders. (ii) A tailor-made training manual was produced. (iii) PASS was implemented in 11 courses in CUHK, two of which were new. (iv) The development of PASS in the General Education Foundation (GEF) Programme includes (a) scaling up the PASS Leader and PASS Supervisor teams; (b) significantly increasing the number of PASS sessions; (c) launching the Senior PASS Leader scheme; (d) implementing PASS as reading workshops; and (e) applying the Socratic method in PASS.

Deliverables and evaluation

The evaluation data show that (i) PASS can enhance students’ subject knowledge, study skills, confidence and motivation, and transition into university, (ii) PASS can also enhance PASS Leaders’ analytic, communication and leadership skills, and (iii) Senior PASS Leaders can provide strong support to the juniors.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

The project findings were disseminated in 16 presentations delivered in local and international conferences. One of the PASS Leaders has been granted the 2017 Australasian Peer Leader Award. A promotion campaign was launched to promote PASS. The good practices will be continuously implemented in PASS and shared with other units in CUHK.

Video Report

Please click the following link for viewing the report.
https://panopto.cuhk.edu.hk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9D649ED8-C6BB-458C-A152-AC7F010C0D00