I have been working to continually improve problem solving workshops since I took over as first year director. I saw students required motivation to participate, with low attendances and lecturers doing all the work in classes. I based my approach to encourage students to more actively participate on the evidence which shows students benefit from active learning [1]. I effectively “flipped” these classes in 2012 by creating a series of videos showing students step-by-step solutions to all the problems in their homework booklet. This allowed students to see full worked solutions for all the problems, accessible in their own time rather than waiting for the next class. These were very well received by students, receiveing hundreds of views and positive feedback. In 2013 I replaced passive problem-solving classes, where students watched a lecturer solve the problems from the booklet on the board, with more active problem-solving workshops in which students work in groups on worksheets. This was well received by students, in semester 2 2014 97% of the 1B students surveyed and 94% of the 1A students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that “In general problem solving classes were helpful”. This change corresponded with attendance in these classes more than doubled. [add here about being evidence based worksheets]

A challenge with the newly formatted problem solving workshops was the need for a more suitable space to encourage student discussion and participation. In 2014 I led a team of academics and architects to redesign the first year physics lab to create a large flat floor space with lots of white boards to better support active learning. One of the class coveners wrote to me “The space is definitely working as intended, the students are completely engaged with the material within their groups, they enjoy explaining the concepts to each other”. The success of this redesign has been widely acknowledged with tours by UNSW academics and more broadly recognised by the Physics Education Group of the Australian Institute of Physics. In addition, UNSW Canberra campus has adopted the design in the development of their undergraduate physics lab.

Peer-to-peer tutoring has been shown to have a positive impact on student learning [reference]. In order to encourage this in 2017 I introduced a "koala tutor" program to the workshops. Students are provided with the worksheets before class, students who bring the completed worksheets to class can discuss the problems with a TA and then work as a peer tutor. Their name is recorded and if they do this three times over the term there is a small prize (Caramello koala). Students were told about the benefits of explaining concepts to other students. The uptake of this was fairly low and dependent upon the convener assigned to the class. In 2018 along with Prof. Richard Buckland I chose second year students to work as TAs in these class, depending on class size each class would have a convener, a PhD student or academic staff member, and one or two TAs, second year students who had completed Physics 1A and 1B the previous year. Feedback from students about using second year TAs has been very positive, being new to the university they feel comfortable talking to the TAs about physics but also about other issues impacting their transition to university. This ties in well with the peer tutor program, students who have worked three times as a peer tutor are given preference when they apply to be a TA the following year. One aspect of this program I hope to improve in 2020 is trying to increase the number of female students who work as peer tutors and so get appointed as TAs. I am working with the Women and Minorities in Physics group, a student group, to put in place a program to support students and make them feel more confident to work as peer tutors.

In 2019 with the move to three terms the problem solving workshops became two hour workshops rather than one hour workshops in 2018. This change was based on student feedback. In physics a "course representative" is elected for each course, they meet with the teaching committee a couple of times over the semester to give us very valuable feedback. This system works well as we have the opportunity to have a discussion and come to a much deeper understanding of the reason for student requests than can be achieved in a one way survey. By working together we can find the best solution to the issues faced by the students. The course representatives then feed back to the student body. In 2018 many students requested longer problem solving workshops so this was accommodated in the move to three terms in 2019.

I presented my approach to problem solving classes with my peers at a UNSW “flipped” community of practice in 2016 and a poster at the UNSW Learning and Teaching Forum in 2015.

[1] Hake, R. R. (1998). Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American journal of Physics, 66(1), 64-74.