The "Biggest Loser" initiative – a peer learning scheme for undergraduate education
(2006) The "Biggest Loser" initiative – a peer learning scheme for undergraduate education. In Proceedings 17th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Auckland, New Zealand.
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Abstract
This paper describes a peer mentoring scheme for engineering undergraduates. A "Biggest Loser" (BL) competition has been trialled in two units at QUT in the past year. The units were EEB213, a first year "Electrical Circuits" unit and EEB512, a third year "Industrial Electronics and Digital Design" unit. In the competition participants were subjected to one preliminary "weigh-in" and one final "weigh-in". These weigh-ins were essentially assessments of students’ preliminary and final performances. Between the two weigh-ins students were required to work with a personal trainer to lose as much "mis-understanding" as possible. The personal trainer had to be a peer (i.e. a fellow student doing the same unit). For the Biggest Losers of mis-understanding (i.e. the biggest improvers) in the class there was a 6% bonus which was shared evenly between the BLs and their personal trainers. The competition bonuses provided a motivation for under-performing students to improve. It also motivated the high achieving students to serve as personal trainers for their less well achieving peers. Participation in the BL competition was voluntary. Those who chose not to participate formed a control group and those who chose to participate formed the test group. The competition was found to be very successful in first year, where students’ attitudes were relatively malleable. It was found to be less successful in third year where students exhibited substantially more resistance to changing their way of studying.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Keywords: | Peer mentoring; popular culture; improvement |
| Subjects: | 330000 Education > 330100 Education Studies > 330109 Assessment and Evaluation |
| ID Code: | 5898 |
| Deposited By: | Mason, Bonnie |
| Deposited On: | 20 December 2006 |
| Alternative Locations: | http://www.aaee.com.au/ |
| Copyright Owner: | Copyright 2006 (please consult author) |