NSF Awards: 1623126
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is an active learning instructional strategy focused on in person interactions among students and their student peer leader. They work together solving problems which has shown to increase student achievement for those who participate. At the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), PLTL has been institutionalized into the foundations mathematics courses. PLTL has increased pass rates in these courses from below 50% to almost 80% in some semesters. In March 2020, due to COVID, we had to switch from in person PLTL to cyber PLTL within two weeks. This came with it's challenges in continuing data collection, training peer leaders, and choosing the best platform to conduct workshops. With the Summer 2020 to revise our implementation of cPLTL, we now have a program that both our students and peer leaders are adjusting to.
NSF Awards: 1623126
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is an active learning instructional strategy focused on in person interactions among students and their student peer leader. They work together solving problems which has shown to increase student achievement for those who participate. At the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), PLTL has been institutionalized into the foundations mathematics courses. PLTL has increased pass rates in these courses from below 50% to almost 80% in some semesters. In March 2020, due to COVID, we had to switch from in person PLTL to cyber PLTL within two weeks. This came with it's challenges in continuing data collection, training peer leaders, and choosing the best platform to conduct workshops. With the Summer 2020 to revise our implementation of cPLTL, we now have a program that both our students and peer leaders are adjusting to.
Continue the discussion of this presentation on the Multiplex. Go to Multiplex
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Welcome Everybody!
Thank you for watching our video on how we converted from in person Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) to cyber Peer-Led Team Learning (cPLTL). We would love to hear your thoughts about this project. If you would like more information about the program or an opportunity to collaborate with us, please email (nmonros@uvi.edu) or leave a message. Again, Welcome and Thank You!
Lawanda Cummings
Yay! I didn't know you had a presentation for the PLTL project. Very well done.
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Thanks!
Stephen Alkins
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
I was a a tutor in a PLTL program for Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, so I am a huge proponent of this model! Obviously Covid-19 presented several challenges to engaging with students, however, it also highlighted some techniques that may be beneficial
1. Are there any virtual learning techniques, tips, or tools, that you plan to still utilize once in-person instruction/tutoring resumes?
2. Did you all observe dips in pass rates for your students? Also, which subjects did you notice had the most trouble transitioning to remote learning?
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Thanks for your questions Stephen. My responses are below.
1. When we resume in person next semester, we will keep the workshop organized using Microsoft Teams. It is a great way for the leaders to send messages for the students, for the students to submit work, to take attendance, and keep track of grades.
2. Preliminary findings from one campus saw a drop in final PLTL grades. We have not looked at the pass rate overall for the course. We only looked at cPLTL for our foundations mathematics courses.
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
Those are some impressive preliminary findings. Congratulations!
We have heard quite a bit about the difficulties that students are having with connectivity and staying focused due to the pivot to online classes, so I am interested in hearing about how CPLTL compares to in-person PLTL in terms of outcomes for students. Have you been able to compare results?
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Thanks for your comments and questions Nuria. Preliminary findings from one campus saw a drop in final PLTL grades. We have not looked at the overall pass rate for the course. We will be doing that this summer.
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
Are you looking at other data besides grades and questionnaires? For example, I am thinking about interviews with peer leaders and students.
Overtoun Jenda
Assistant Provost and Professor of Mathematics
This is a great program. Are there plans to have similar programs for chemistry and physics courses? Did you have connectivity issues with some groups of students?
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Hi Overtoun,
We do have in person PLTL for Physics, and I am not certain that they continued with cPLTL for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. Connectivity on the islands are an issue. Students would at times use their phones to connect to Microsoft Teams, which works well on cell phones.
Kristin Grimes
Great job! I loved learning more about this work!
Nadia Mills
Assistant Professor
Thanks for your support!
Liandra Larsen
Great job! As a Crucian, it's great to see the V.I. represented in this showcase. The fact that you all were able to take PLTL to cyber PLTL in such a short amount of time is an amazing achievement! Congratulations!
Elena Ortiz
Elena Ortiz
Thank you for sharing the successes and challenges of moving your student support online. I was wondering, is the PLTL done within a course or as outside class support? We have in class student supports, but we don’t use a framework like this - I’m excited to learn more about PLTL and cPLTL
Genae Gonsalves
Nicely done! This really highlighted UVI's student voices.
Jonee Wilson
Thank you for sharing this important work! What measures are you using to determine the increase in student math self-efficacy and decrease in math anxiety? One reason I ask is because on our project we are working in the context of K-12 math classrooms and are looking at instructional practices that support increases in achievement and participation BUT, because of the nature of our data, we have not been able to capture the students' perspectives and their developing math identities. It sounds like we could learn from you all!
Lawanda Cummings
Yay!!! you found Dr. Nadia Monrose Mills!!! She is the director of the STEM Institute in the USVI and a contributor to numerous hours of PD for our teachers. Exciting.