The new Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program established by the UAlberta Engineering Students' Society is giving first-year engineering students a leg up on their studies.
Spearheaded by ESS Vice President of Services Kevin Wang, this initiative is connecting peers and offering a safe space for students to study and learn in a low-pressure environment.
"If you're looking for help from a professor, or even a text book, usually that's a very high level of language and understanding," Wang explained. "Sometimes when a friend explains something to you, it just clicks."
Wang is a third-year computer engineering student who has a passion for technology and an acute understanding of how difficult the life of a first-year engineering student can be.
"I've heard a lot of horror stories," he said. "Things like, 'I stayed up all night and still failed.' Engineering is definitely a very challenging degree."
These study sessions are informally structured, but focus on current curriculum, and provide a trove of resources. Students are welcome to participate in problems provided by professors, work on their own assignments, or even ask one of the volunteer student instructors to help clarify an entire concept.
"The instructors just finished absorbing the material themselves," Wang said. "They've gone through the difficulties of actually learning it, so they understand how to explain it. We wanted to recreate this peer-to-peer learning in a systematic way."
The student instructors are vetted by the ESS and show distinct passion for their subject. Having the opportunity to teach their peers is also beneficial for them. Some of the volunteer instructors will go on to use their teaching skills in graduate school or for professional development.
Currently, attendance at the sessions varies, depending on their proximity to a midterm or as deadlines for major assignments approach.
So far, the students attending seem to be reaping the benefits.
"I think it's really helpful," said Isobel, a first-year student who has attended a handful of study sessions. "It's nice to get some more help on assignments, and generally, it's a lot easier to do assignments if you have people to bounce ideas off of."
"If you don't have a good study group yet, you can come here and meet other kids that don't have a study group either," Sydney, another first year student, chimed in.
Wang agrees the camaraderie of working in a peer-support environment is valuable.
"When you get a bunch of people together who are struggling, they will help each other out, which is such a contrast to the bland individualistic tone that studying often has." He said. "That kind of support is under estimated and undervalued."
In the future, Wang hopes that the ESS can acquire more volunteers and resources to support the program. Ideally, he would like to see more course options offered. He would like to integrate practice quizzes, demonstrations, or special lectures, while also collecting more feedback from the students attending these sessions, so they can be improved upon.
In the meantime, he just wants students to understand the value of these study sessions and come share in their benefits.
Students can attend the peer assisted study sessions every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the ATCO Design Lab (ETLC 2-010). These student sessions will also be running in the New Year.
Third- and fourth-year students interested in instructing their peers are welcome to email esserv@ualberta.ca. For more information, students can visit the PASS website.