Forum 2023
ARA Institute of Technology Level Two, Kahukura Building Moorhouse Avenue
Christchurch
8th & 9th February 2023 [email protected]
Vocational
Engineering
Education
A peer mentoring programme
supporting learners from the School of Civil Engineering
Cindy Wee & Edward Chai Unitec, Te Pukenga
PASS: Peer Assisted
Study Sessions
PASS leaders are senior, more experienced and high achieving students who provide academic support for their peers for specific Engineering courses
The PASS leaders are trained
according to the PASS Principles, such as avoiding re-teaching,
using questions and re-directing questions and encourage
independent learning to support students in their learning.
They are paid for their role.
PASS in the
computer lab:
AutoCAD class
PASS leaders go around the class helping
students one-to-one, to
keep up with what the
lecturer is teaching .
A PASS leader facilitates a session by preparing
activities for students to work on or practice on exams in groups.
It encourages peer
engagement and learning
One-to-one student
engagement
PASS one-to-one
drop-in
PASS in the materials lab
Students were able to work on their soil
compaction test
under the guidance
of a PASS leader
Students get practical
help from
leaders
Catch-up practical sessions with
support of PASS
leaders
PASS online
Students could engage with
leaders online during the
lockdowns
Online tutorial session
students meet other
students to learn and
discuss concepts or
problem solving
On demand session for AutoCAD
• Extra sessions for exam preparation
• Students could ask questions
• Opportunity to practise exam questions
• Leader shared exam tips
Digital
tools
Hybrid PASS
sessions
24
25 25 25 24
23
24 23
23
2
1 1 1 2
2
2 3
2
1 1
21.5 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5
Addressed my need/concern/question Gave me opportunities to ask questions Guided me to solve a problem when I got stuck Helped me keep on track with what the lecturer wanted Increased my motivation to complete my course Improved my understanding of subject content Been an enjoyable learning experience Encouraged me to take responsibility for my own learning Helped prepare me for tests/exams
No. of students
Particpaation in PASS has
Civil Engineering student feedback Sem 2, 2022
5 Agree 4 3 2 1 Disagree
Based on the PASS sessions which I participated, what I liked most is:
• Answer our question well and clearly
• In depth understanding of all topics, was able to clarify certain concepts that other lecturers struggled to explain.
• Find it very comfortable to ask questions and with clear answers.
• Leader is very patient and explains things very clearly and slowly
• Leader can explain a question in a much easier way for us to understand
• Their efforts to encourage students to ask questions and explain each and every thing
• Getting very direct help as not many people attended
• The chance of get a direct response to my doubt and be able to deepened my knowledge of the subject
• Answers the questions in full detail, showing how he derived the formula. And always answering questions I have
• It was recorded after class tutorials continued being delivered
• I liked how the PASS leaders came into zoom breakout rooms to check up on how you were doing and whether you were able to ask them questions.
• Just having someone to ask questions and help.
• Solving my queries in online sessions in zoom
Benefits
Students’ quotes
Based on the PASS sessions which I participated, what I liked most is:
• Ability to discuss with peers
• I can participate any time of pass sessions.
• Being able to see good quality of others so I could do the same in mine
• How relaxed and easy it is to get further learning
• Working in groups, other students could explain their point of view - how to measure rooms
• Tineke was very knowledgeable and willing to share her knowledge.
• Guide our group to put together a powerful presentation.
• He is very initiative and ready all time when asked for the subject help. He gave us idea different ways to think, he has good though process he is a good leader
• Still feeling connected
• Is the opportunity for me to ask question about the course that I don't understand and stuck on
• Learning skills
• He gave help when I had problems
• She should direct us to questions to work out on paper and then we'd compare answers before moving on to the next. Sometimes Hoi Ting would write the working out to help me understand.
• Very good at teaching
• Time that she has to walk us through issues with topic covered in lectures
Benefits
Students’ quotes
First year Civil Engineering courses with PASS session, successful completion course, and first year retention
• Programmes in Civil Engineering & Surveying Department are (1) Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BETMG), (2) New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (NZDE), and (3) New
Zealand Diploma in Surveying (NZDS)
A. First year BETMG programme with PASS session
Course name Course code
Engineering Mechanics ENGG MG5002 Engineering Communication ENGG MG5003
Civil Materials ENGG MG5107
Engineering Mathematics ENGG MG5004 Engineering Site Investigation ENGG MG5009 Engineering Design and Drawing ENGG MG5005
Basic Structures ENGG MG5032
Land Surveying ENGG MG5006
B. First Year NZDE programme with PASS session
Course name Course code
Engineering Fundamentals ENGG DE4101 Technical Literacy ENGG DE4103
Land Surveying 1 ENGG DE4202
Engineering Mathematics 1 ENGG DE4102
Materials (Civil) ENGG DE4201
Structures 1 ENGG DE5201
Civil and Structural Drawing ENGG DE5202 Geotechnical Engineering 1 ENGG DE5207
Comparison of Successful Completion Rate and first year retention of BETMG and NZDE programmes
• The data for Successful Completion rate (SCC) and first year retention for NZDE and BETMG programmes were taken from Power BI.
• From Figure 2C and Figure 2D, it can be seen that the Successful Completion Rate (SCC) of courses improves from year 1 to year 2 for NZDE programme, and year 1 to year 3 for
BETMG programme.
• The disparity of SCC between year 1 and higher level students for NZDE is around 30%.
For BETMG, it is just less than 10%.
• From the retention figures in Figure 2E and Figure 2F, it seems that the first year retention of the 2 programmes are quite similar despite poorer SCC for NZDE in first year.
Identification of critical group of students for PASS support
• The 2 programmes have similar number of students. But from Figure 2C and Figure 2D, BETMG has about 25% higher first year SCC than NZDE. So NZDE is the more critical
programme for PASS support for first year students.
• When zoomed in as in Figure 2G, international students are about 20% better than domestic students in NZDE in first year retention.
• When zoomed in for domestic as in Figure 2H, the NZDE fulltime students are about 30%
better than the NZDE part-time students in first year retention.
• When zoomed in for NZDE part-time domestic students as in Figure 2J, the above 25 students are about 20% better than under 25 students in the first year retention.
• As in Figure 2K and Figure 2L, the Maori and Pasifika students in NZDE rank between
domestic fulltime & part-time students. They are not considered as the most critical in the first year retention.
• Since the under 25 NZDE domestic part-time is about 9% of the total domestic students, the NZDE domestic part-time students with about 22% of the total domestic students and with 50% first year retention is more representative and considered as the critical group for PASS support.
NZDE overall first year retention
NZDE overall international first year retention
NZDE overall domestic first year retention
Figure 2G NZDE overall first year retention for domestic and international
NZDE overall domestic first year retention
NZDE domestic fulltime first year retention
NZDE domestic part-time first year retention
Figure 2H NZDE domestic first year retention for fulltime and part-time
NZDE domestic part-time first year retention
NZDE domestic part-time & above 25 first year retention
NZDE domestic part-time & under 25 first year retention
Figure 2J NZDE domestic part-time first year retention for above and under 25 years old
Figure 2K NZDE Maori first year retention for fulltime & part-time
Figure 2L NZDE Pasifika first year retention for fulltime & part-time
Result and discussion of the effect of PASS sessions on Successful Completion course (SCC) of NZDE first year students
• Constraint of Power BI are:
➢ no retention rate for individual first year courses,
➢ Successful completion course (SCC) only available from Year 2019 onwards,
➢ no SCC for fulltime and part-time students.
• Because of the constraints, we cannot get the individual retention rate and SCC for the various groups for those courses with PASS session. The critical group in question is the NZDE domestic part-time students (<25) with the lowest first year retention rate.
• Ideally, we need the data before PASS and data after PASS was implemented to see the impact. But the individual data prior to 2019 were not available in Power BI. The first semester with PASS was semester 2, 2017.
• In the first year NZDE courses, DE4201 Materials (Civil) & DE5207 Geotechnical Engineering 1 are not included in the SCC analysis because of less impact due to PASS session in lab of short duration or weighting.
• Multiple factors are involved that affect SCC and first year retention. These factors include the coming of COVID, the introduction of 30 months fees free study for domestic NZDE students, border closed to international students starting from semester 2, 2020.
• Due to the constraint of Power BI, so instead of using the data for NZDE domestic part-time (<25), we approximate it with NZDE domestic (<25) as in Figure 5A and compare it with the domestic (>25), domestic overall, and international overall.
• In Figure 5B, we take out the head count of less than 10 and obtain the average SCC for the various groups from 2019 to 2022.
• SCC hovers between 63% - 78% for international all, 66% – 78% for domestic >25, and 28%- 53% for domestic <25. With the limited amount of data, the PASS session seems to benefit the international students and domestic >25 students the most, and less effect on the
domestic <25 students.
Recommendation
• Generally, the participation in PASS is better for the higher performing students and poor for the lower performing students.
• Important for the lower performing students (domestic <25 part-time students or domestic
<25 students in general) to involve in PASS to reap the benefit, like improved SCC and better first year retention.
• The new domestic <25 students for their first 4 courses (DE4101, DE4102, DE4103, DE4202 in the case for Unitec should be identified early in the semester and to be sent to the
Academic Programme Manager, Programme Coordinator, lecturers).
• The PASS sessions for these first 4 courses for new students should be strongly promoted to the domestic <25 students so that most of them will participate in the PASS session.
Figure 5A - SCC(%) for international and domestic students from 2019 to 2022
Figure 5B – SCC (%) with 10 or more head count for international and domestic students
