Abstract

• This collaborative project aims at engaging students as partners with PASS (Peer Assisted Study Session) at university level. Apart from expanding the existing projects of PASS across three different units, namely, 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), further expansion is also proposed – to collaborate with a newly joined unit, the Faculty of Science.
• Derived from Supplemental Instruction, PASS provides a cost-effective platform for structured collaborative learning in a supportive and “non-threatening” environment. PASS consists of weekly one-hour, voluntary study sessions led by “PASS Leaders”, students who excelled at the same course in the past and completed a two-day accredited PASS Leader Training held by the PASS Supervisors. PASS Leaders serve as facilitators for group studying and encourage all participants to actively work in close partnership with each other in PASS sessions.
• PASS has been implemented in the General Education Foundation (GEF) Programme and 11 subjects in the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK with very positive evaluation from participating students, PASS Leaders and Senior PASS Leaders. PASS effectively enhances students’ subject knowledge, independent learning skills, increases their confidence and motivation, and boosts their academic performance. Meanwhile, PASS Leaders and Senior PASS Leaders can strengthen their communication and leadership skills.
• This project will implement PASS in a larger scale to benefit more CUHK students and promote PASS in the campus. An accredited PASS Supervisor Training and an accredited Advanced PASS Supervisor Training will be organized to train the trainers, i.e., to equip more CUHK staff from different units with the necessary knowledge and skills to train and supervise PASS Leaders. Both OUGE and SPHPC plan to increase the number of PASS sessions in the coming academic year. The Faculty of science also has expressed interests in offering PASS for their courses. The number of weekly PASS sessions is projected to increase from 40 in 2019/20 to 60 in 2021/22. All stakeholders, including PASS Supervisors, PASS Leaders, Senior PASS Leaders, teachers and students, will closely work together to build a sustainable partnership community of PASS in CUHK.
• A regular and systematic evaluation on the effectiveness of PASS will be conducted to monitor and to inform the necessary adjustment in 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 collaborative project across four units aims at engaging students as partners with peer assisted study session (PASS) to promote peer-led active learning at the university level. It will implement PASS in a larger scale with a regular and systematic evaluation.

Activities, process and outcomes

(i) 18 PASS Leader Training Workshops (TWs), 3 Advanced TWs and 3 Senior Leader TWs have trained 107 Leaders
(ii) A PASS-SI Supervisor TW was organized with the International Center for Supplemental Instruction (SI) to train 23 staff members
(iii) The Advanced SI Supervisor TW and the Advanced SI Leader Workshop were participated by 2 PASS Supervisors and 2 Senior Leaders respectively
(iv) PASS has been implemented in 10 courses, with a total of about 4,000 voluntary student participants
(v) Online PASS has been successfully adapted under the pandemic
(vi) The Senior PASS Leader scheme in the General Education Foundation (GEF) Programme has been expanded
(vii) A depository was set up to record the good practices developed by the Leaders

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) with a doubled number of participants, online PASS has achieved results comparable with face-to-face one; and (iii) PASS can also enhance Leaders’ communication and leadership skills.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

The findings and practices were disseminated in 7 local and international presentations. The GEF PASS Team was awarded the University Education Award (Teams) 2020-21.

Impact on teaching and learning

This project has taken the “Students as Partners” approach to re-envision students and staff as active collaborators in teaching and learning development.

Video Report

Please click the following link for viewing the report.
https://cuhk.ap.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=50ff079f-fed1-41a8-9f1b-b12200b206d0