A multi-institutional trial of a peer assisted teaching scheme: positive changes in course evaluation scores

In the rapidly changing global higher education sector, providing a quality educational experience to students increasingly matters. Students want quality teaching and with increasing competition to attract local and international students, quality teaching has become a focus. Academic teachers have traditionally not received formal training in teaching, and although support for quality teaching and learning is increasing through centralised university schemes, these schemes are often criticised. The Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme (PATS) is a new form of Teaching and Learning professional development for academic staff to enhance teaching quality. The scheme provides a structured framework to reinvigorate courses through collegial input and guidance via a process that incorporates goal-setting exercises, peer observation of teaching and analysis of informal student feedback. In addition, workshops covering various aspects related to teaching are offered during the scheme. PATS was initially designed to address low student satisfaction with the quality of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) courses[1] in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. The scheme was primarily designed to: (i) improve the level of student satisfaction with courses identified as in need of improvement; and (ii) build leadership capacity by engaging teachers recognized as outstanding. Demonstrated improvements in the level of student satisfaction with courses in the 2009 pilot scheme led to a trial of PATS across seven disciplines at Monash University in 2010, and supported by an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Teaching Fellowship grant. In 2012, the Council of Australian Directors of Academic Development (CADAD) funded a trial expanding the scheme across five other Australian universities: The University of Newcastle (New South Wales), Griffith University, University of Sunshine Coast (USC) (Queensland), and Edith Cowan University (ECU) (Western Australia). 2013 has seen PATS rolled out at twelve universities and two private higher education institutions nationwide as part of an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded National Senior Teaching Fellowship. In this paper, we describe the PATS process, outline common focus areas for course improvement and highlight the changes in the course evaluation scores of courses before and after they were included in the PATS. Findings showed a variety of areas targeted for improvement with considerable increases in course evaluation scores in the majority of courses, suggesting that the teaching changes made by participants had a positive effect on actual student experiences. This experience of the multi-institutional trial of a peer assisted teaching scheme provides valuable information to academics and academic developers considering such a scheme to reinvigorate teaching practice and improve course evaluation scores