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Union says ‘Uber-style’ peer to peer tutoring ‘not in students’ or staff’s best interests’
The NTEU has alleged that Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) online study company Studiosity's new peer-to-peer tutoring service for university students is "clearly not in either existing staff’s or students’ best interests".
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The difference is that PAL within universities is overseen by university staff, and students are not charged for the privilege of being tutored by an unqualified peer.
If the universities are paying for the tutoring, this is outsourcing, pure and simple, and an admission by the universities that they are not providing the support and assistance that students require. Widening participation initiatives are working; unfortunately universities haven’t also widened the support services that students need. On the contrary, teaching workloads are increasing and casual staff are being exploited, with inadequate pay for marking and tutorials being rebranded as workshops in order to cut casual pay in half for performing the same teaching duties as in the past.
If university staff are recommending and overseeing the tutors, why do we need outfits like Studiosity at all? Why don’t the universities just step up and organise a PAL program and train PAL tutors themselves? Maybe because, as Dr Barnes suggests, they are trying to undercut pay rates set out in Enterprise Agreements.
I have attended two ‘information sessions’ given by Studiosity (and its previous iteration ‘YourTutor’) and have asked one question: What are the qualifications of your tutors? I have been blown off both times with claims that they are ‘highly trained and vetted’. Such reluctance leaves me with great doubts about their authenticity.
As to the claim of meeting “previously unmet online, after-hours demand’ – they don’t operate in peak holiday times (Easter, Christmas) and because they do not have access to the online learning platforms at the university, they have little concept of what the students are actually asked to produce.
I haven’t heard of too many gross errors with their advice, but those that have been reported to me made a huge difference to the assignment results for the affected students.
As to the claim of “over 65 per cent of Australia’s public universities have had peer-assisted study support programs in place for more than a decade”, the meeting I referred to above were held 1 year and 2 years ago, when we were informed (only after intense queries) that this was a new enterprise (moving into HE) as they had saturated the high schools willing to endorse their work.
I shudder to think what they would do with PAL.
I encourage students to give them a try for basic grammar checks, but they are very poor on the validating of the referencing styles used here.
As a ‘full-time’ casual of ten years duration, I guess they would hire me once the university offloads us, but I doubt the conditions of employment at Studiosity would run to a PhD or higher salary.