GoReact: Enhancing Reflection in PASS Leaders

Digital Learning Initiative Overview

Ben Ingram, Co-ordinator of Peer Learning at UniSQ, facilitates the Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program. PASS partners with challenging first year courses by training students (PASS leaders) who have previously succeeded in the course, to run group study sessions for students who are currently enrolled. PASS leaders work with course examiners to create PASS sessions which consolidate course content and study strategies.

In order to assist PASS leaders in reflecting on their facilitation of PASS, Ben identified GoReact as an EdTech tool which would allow for asynchronous, collective, reflection and feedback. This tool was selected because of its capacity to work asynchronously and it afforded PASS leaders the ability to observe themselves and self reflect.

Implementation

GoReact is the self-proclaimed #1 tool for teaching performance-based skills online.

How it worked: Ben created an observation task within the platform, with this task asking PASS leaders to record a session and then review it using given criteria. The creation of the task is a guided process, with educators prompted through the generation of rubrics and the setting of task specific parameters such as start and due date.

The reflective task Ben set PASS leaders had three stages:

1. Pass leaders viewed and reflected on a recorded session. Whilst doing so, they were asked to ‘tag’ where they demonstrated specific skills (with these skills set by Ben in advance). PASS leaders then completed a self-reflection rubric where they could mark set skills as needing attention, emerging, or achieved. (Traditional A to E rubrics are additionally available.)
2. Ben then had the opportunity to view these student reflections. He was able to respond to the ‘tags’ within the videos and add his own. He was additionally able to complete a feedback rubric for students.
3. Students were then able to view Ben’s feedback with Ben closing the loop by meeting with PASS leaders.
   (GoReact does have the capacity to allow peer-to-peer feedback, which was not utilised within the trial.)

Outcomes

Educator response:

• Overall, Ben found GoReact very beneficial for its capacity to facilitate timely asynchronous reflection, feedback, and growth.
• The greatest benefit was in having students reflect in a guided and informed way. An additionally benefit was the ease of set up for educators and users, with student use deemed ‘intuitive’ through the scaffolded embedding of ‘pop ups’.
• A key challenge with the platform was the quality of video and the time involved in uploading it, which may have been linked to the size of video uploaded, with PASS sessions usually an hour long.
• Additionally, recording these sessions, which are designed to be informal safe spaces for students to work, is counter intuitive.

Students response:

• The use of GoReact was optional for PASS leaders. There were 10 active leaders in total during the trial period with 8 choosing to use GoReact.
• Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with most rating it an ‘excellent’ experience, with ease of use noted.
  Students commented on how beneficial and at times confronting it was to view themselves on video in this reflective manner.
• Students highlighted the tool’s capacity to encourage self-reflection as well as facilitate feedback from supervisors.