Integrating peer assisted learning and elearning: Using innovative pedagogies to support learning and teaching in higher education settings

The paper reports the findings from a project which examined the interface between Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) and eLearning in a higher education setting. Traditional uses of ICTs in Higher Education have focused on the ‘transfer model’ where existing face to face pedagogies have tended to be transferred to approaches to elearning. This paper argues that arrival of Web 2.0 has challenged the continued viability of the transfer model and discusses instead the need for more innovative approaches to inform the design of teaching and learning in higher education settings. In response to this the PAL project was conceptualised using ideas drawn from socio-cultural theory. This theoretical perspective includes the role that social situations play in promoting learning. The project findings indicated that interfacing PAL and eLearning provided an important context for re-positioning the ways in which tutorials and lectures could be used as a basis for collaborative learning between students and lecturers alike.