A Sydney start-up that’s revolutionising the delivery of student learning resources in the digital era has won the backing of University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
PeerTute offers online peer-to-peer video tutorials created by top performing past students. The tutorials are curated to perfectly match the curriculum of university subjects, giving students a hyper localised supplementary resource.
PeerTute recently announced a deal with the UTS Faculty of Engineering & IT where the faculty has paid for student access to several PeerTute courses after a pilot study held within the school showed participants who extensively used the platform had higher grades and course satisfaction levels.
“It’s fantastic to have our first University on board and to have UTS recognise the value of peer-to-peer learning”, founder Dan Brand said.
How has PeerTute managed to reel in UTS?
More than 100 UTS students participated in last year’s pilot trial. It found high student engagement with the product as 80 per cent of the cohort watched more than 10 videos. There were also clear links between usage and student performance as those who watched more than 20 videos had a 75 per cent chance of passing their course.
David Glaser, a student who participated in the study, said, “It has been a great supplement for lectures and for further understanding my course as the videos are short and extremely straightforward, making them super engaging.”
Dan said giving students access to “quick, clear and concise” video tutorials for their university subject supercharged their learning experience.
“While lecturers are the experts, past students can easily explain concepts and offer a fresh perspective to their peers as they’re on a similar wavelength. Our team believes the combination of lecturers and peers creates the most rounded learning experience.”
PeerTute is a recent spin-off of SpoonFeedMe, which sells course access directly to students. Since its launch, it has attracted more than 35,000 members, with more than 10,000 subscribing at a premium.
SpoonFeedMe began while Dan was doing his Civil Engineering degree. During his third year, he struggled to understand certain subjects and found the biggest help came from a mix of YouTube tutorials and a tutor who had just completed the course.
“PeerTute is a B2B institutional offering for the Australian University market. We believe the UTS endorsement is a giant step towards more Universities seeing the pedagogic value in peer-to-peer as a means to accelerate student learning experiences and results.” Dan said.