Establishment of a Peer Support Group at the Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Ruhuna.

Abstract

Peer support learning is recognized as an effective educational tool. It enables students to share knowledge, experiences and resources to gain academic success. Traditionally, in the Sri Lankan university culture, students rely on an informal method of peer learning known as ‗Kuppi classes‘, where groups of students gather to study together, often in an unstructured manner. These informal peer study sessions often lack organization and consistency and possess less efficacy. Considering these facts the Department of Medical Laboratory Science (MLS), Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (FAHS) established a Peer Support Group aiming to provide an organized platform that encourages academic and emotional support for the students in challenging modules. This initiative was implemented in response to the programme review recommendations for the faculty. High-performing peer students, temporary demonstrators, and unit coordinators were appointed as the resource persons. Repeat and re-repeat students in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 were taken as the peer learning group. Peer learning sessions were designed aiming at the areas that students found challenging. The programme was conducted in hybrid mode. According to the resource persons, there was an active student participation since it provided structured sessions tailored to their academic needs. Attendance for the sessions varied from 8-92%. Feedbacks from the participant students were collected. In this manner, the first Peer Support Group was successfully established at the Department of MLS, FAHS, University of Ruhuna, providing insights to expand the programme with respect to other needy modules. Student feedback and examination results will be evaluated to assess the effectiveness of the Peer Support Group activities in future.