This project is advancing undergraduate STEM education through the expansion of the well-established Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model, which has proven to be successful in the natural sciences, into courses in the social sciences. The work is being conducted at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a highly diverse student body, in which 56% of the students are minorities and roughly 60% of incoming freshmen are first-generation college students. NEIU is a commuter school with a sizeable number of non-traditional students who work full- or part-time, and have difficulty getting to campus outside of regular class periods.
The psychology department is one of the largest departments on campus and is challenged to meet the needs of the numerous students and the diverse body of majors and minors in the department. Within the psychology courses and major, some of the most acute challenges include retaining minority students, creating common learning spaces and communities, and making course support accessible to all students. This project is evolving a modified PLTL model that relies on online technology to address the departmental challenges. Further, this project is allowing the faculty to determine whether the modified PLTL model is successful in expanding access for the many non-traditional students that comprise the NEIU student body. The project builds upon an existing Peer Mentor program in the STEM fields and now piloted in psychology. Ultimately, the work will add in-person and online PLTL-style workshops to three entry-level psychology courses and inject the careful use of technology to augment access, communication, and learning groups. In addition to enhancing access, the project team expects the small-group, peer led interactions - both in-person and online - to improve student retention via the development of collaborative learning communities.
Project proposal objectives are to: - design, implement and disseminate a modified PLTL model that is tailored for psychology courses and may be easily adapted for other social sciences; - design Peer led workshops that can be delivered online in order to increase access for non-traditional students; - investigate and evaluate the success of online Peer led interactions and small group activities; and - evaluate the program's effectiveness for improving student performance, retention and increasing participation of non-traditional students.
This project has potential interest for social science departments that would like to draw upon the success of the PLTL model and for institutions serving non-traditional students.
