The sMASH IT! project is a peer-support project for the Data Analytics module at Lincoln International Business School and was facilitated through the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Teaching & Learning Innovation Fund 2023/24. sMASH IT! is a student-led, student-focused initiative designed to improve the student learning experience, ensuring that additional support in areas such as mathematics and economics is freely available to students, so they are not unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to completing their business degrees.
To start the project, a peer study group was created to support students who sought help. The project team then worked closely with the University’s Maths and Statistics Help Centre (MASH) to train 10 volunteer students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in running small classes to support other students.
More information about this project can be found in this report on the Economics Network website.
Comments from who received help students included:
- “Everyone was very helpful, [name of student] spent specific time breaking down certain questions and [name of student] was constantly offering help”.
- “It was useful and informative”.
And comments from the Volunteer Students included:
- “We went through all the questions provided, explaining how to approach them and answer them in Excel format. Any students who required more help we went round and helped individually and ensured everyone understood how we concluded our answer to each question before moving on. We gained valuable experience of helping people
and speaking in front of a class, we both enjoyed doing it and appreciated the opportunity.”
– 3rd year volunteer student.
- “As a member of the support team, I found the peer support sessions very rewarding as I could instantly see the differences I was making and gauge instant feedback from the students as we were helping.”
– 1st year student volunteer.
- “Next time as well as going through the questions in front of the class I would make time at the beginning to talk directly to students so that I could find out which questions they were struggling with and then focus more on these with the whole class.”
– 1st year student volunteer.
- “It was awesome, students showed great willingness to learn and improve themselves and I believe this is a wonderful initiative to help them achieve success.”
– PhD volunteer student.
The project’s activities were received the Student Union’s One Community Award in the 2023/34 Awards.