SPACE FOR TEACHING SUPPORT AND INNOVATION: THREE YEARS OF COLLABORATIVE WORK

The teaching assistants in the School of Psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona are a group of students who provide support to the teaching staf. Afer three years, collaboratve work has proven to be an efectve method for the executon of the teaching assistants’ responsibilites. The results of two satsfacton surveys, one answered by the teaching staf and another by the teaching assistants, are analysed in this paper.

• Face to face teaching and exam proctoring: Support is provided during classroom lectures and during exams. TAs help teachers supervise students during exams and learning evidences (i.e. partal exams) (e.g.: handing exams to the students, collectng them back, postng exam informaton, etc.).
• Distance teaching and exam preparaton: TAs create drafs or proposals for study materials and collaborate with the design of some hands-on sessions. They also provide organisaton and research sofware for teachers, create on demand evaluaton tools, and help teachers manage the online campus (Moodle).
• PIAP: TAs provide comprehensive assistance to the Loan Service for Psychological Assessment Instruments of the School (PIAP, Préstec d'Instruments d'Avaluació Psicològica), which is under the control of the ESID. TAs explain the regulatons of use, retrieve the tests, and manage the loan process, as well as assist in the correcton of the instruments when it is needed. The PIAP is a service created more than ffeen years ago in order to provide psychological tools of assessment and diagnosis, like personality and intelligence tests, to students and teachers in the School of Psychology.
• Internal tasks: TAs are engrossed in their own projects as a group, such as managing the program "Find yourself", aimed at the exchange students within the school, organising academic events, creatng course surveys, and partcipatng in conferences, among others.

What is collaboratve work?
As described by Jiménez-González (2009), collaboratve work is all the intentonal processes of a group aimed at achieving common goals, while ultmately promotng the exchange of ideas by its members. Tasks are assigned according to the individual skills and competences required to achieve a concrete goal, under the directon of a coordinator. In order to meet their objectves, it is necessary for the group to promote empathy and interdependence, while also making sure to select the right person for each task. The author also explains that in collaboratve work, contributons made by all team members must be treated critcally and constructvely. Of equal importance, all members contribute ideas and arguments pertaining to the shared, core informaton. Thus, the obtained results are not the sum of teamwork but the refecton of the group's cohesion. Taking this into account, Echazarreta, Prados, Poch and Soler (2009) underline the importance of discerning between collaboratve work and other modalites of group organisaton, and they propose some diferentatng characteristcs: • Collaboratve work is based on a strong relatonship of interdependence of the diferent members. Thus, the fnal achievement of the goals concerns all members.
• Goals are met by both individual and group tasks.
• All members have their share of responsibility for the executon of tasks.
• There is a clear responsibility of each individual member of the group to achieve the ultmate goal.
• Responsibility of each member is shared.
• In terms of group members' abilites and qualites, groups are heterogeneous, unlike traditonal work groups, which are more homogeneous.
• Collaboratve work requires communicaton skills, symmetrical and reciprocal relatonships, and a desire to contribute to the completon of tasks.
• There is interdependence among group members.
López (2009) also stresses the growing importance of informaton and communicaton technologies in collaboratve work.

The collaboratve work of the TAs
• Transversal tasks (distance teaching, exam assistance, and internal tasks): The coordinator evaluates the pertnence of the demands made by the teaching staf (through the Protocol de gestó de tasques (Tasks management protocol), a form created to fulfl this need), as well as the resources available to meet them. Then, these demands are assigned to the TAs as specifc tasks. Tasks are performed in groups thereby promotng the exchange of ideas, methods, and knowledge, while recognizing a shared responsibility for the outcome. The distributon of the work among TAs is based on their skills, current workload, and availability.
• Shif tasks (face to face teaching, exam assistance, and PIAP): The TAs organise themselves in pairs, rotatng work shifs which cover all school teaching hours. During these shifs, the TAs work at the ESID ofce providing face to face tutoring, exam preparaton/practce, and PIAP assistance in additon to their assigned transversal tasks.
• Weekly group meetng: This is the formal meetng tme for the TAs and the coordinator. New tasks are assigned and the status of on-going tasks is discussed in these sessions. In additon, new ideas and proposals are brought to the table, improvements are suggested, and doubts and/or difcultes are shared.
• Tools for communicaton and internal tasks: The TAs utlize new informaton and communicaton technologies to coordinate and perform their dutes. The main tools used are various Google resources, including Google Drive, and Dropbox.

METHODOLOGY
Two satsfacton surveys were handed out in order to assess the efcacy and performance of the TAs' collaboratve work approach. These surveys were designed last year and some modifcatons have been added with the purpose of obtaining beter data. One survey was aimed at the teaching staf to refect their degree of satsfacton with the general ESID services, the Moodle support, the TAs' tasks, and the PIAP services. There were a total of seventeen questons evaluated with two Likert scales (for each queston, respondents had to choose among 5 levels of satsfacton), and a fnal, open ended queston allowing respondents to address anything they wished.
Another survey aimed at the current and former TAs surveyed diferent aspects of their work experience. It included a total of eight questons evaluated with a Likert scale (for each queston, respondents had to choose among 10 levels of satsfacton), plus two census questons, two job related questons, and a fnal, open ended queston allowing respondents to address anything they wished.
Partcipaton was voluntary and partcipants accessed the surveys through an online link designed with the Google survey tool which was available for three months (January to March 2013). 64 teaching staf surveys and 21 TA surveys were collected in total. Subobjectves 1 and 2 were analysed through an approach in which diferent statstcal methods were used with the focus on obtaining both a simple and comparatve standard mean.

Analysis of the results from the two surveys (academic year 2012-2013)
Firstly, the teaching staf survey reveals high overall satsfacton with the general ESID services (Table 1), Moodle support, and PIAP (± >4/5). However, only 32.5% of the teachers felt that their knowledge, confdence, and control over new and/or more complex materials had increased thanks to the work of the ESID and TAs.
Regarding the specifc assessment of TAs' work, there are several interestng results. Teachers know surprisingly litle about the TAs' responsibilites. Teachers who were aware, however, were very positve in their feedback regarding the TAs' usefulness, diligence, efectveness, and desire to be helpful.
Lastly, it is worth mentoning that all the questons addressing the specifc tasks carried out by the TAs came back with very high marks, "Exam proctoring" being the highest one in the ranking with 9.36/10 points.
Vol. 4(2), 2014, pp 73  Table 1. The frst two main rows correspond to overall tasks and percepton of the quality of the work carried out in the ESID. The third row represents each specifc task. The column "Likert scale" represents the direct score obtained from the survey (out of 5 or 10 points), whereas the last column represents the percentage score used to compare the diferent scales of the study

Results of the teaching staf survey (academic year 2012-2013) Variables Likert scale 1-5 Percentages
Regarding the current and former TA survey (Table 2), it is noteworthy that overall satsfacton with the experience came back at 83.8%. The variables which look into the diferent aspects of TAs' work and their methodology (individual work, group work, other types of work, internal communicaton, and coordinaton) also came back with similar high values (± >8<9). The assessment of the relatonship with the teachers and the training received have slightly lower marks (>7<8). To fnish, it is noteworthy that over half of the partcipants believe that their work experience as a TA has helped them gain access to the job market (59.9%), and that 52% of them are currently employed.

Comparatve analysis of the results of the teaching staf surveys (academic years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013)
In this frst set of data addressing overall satsfacton (Figure 1), it should be observed that the assessment values are prety similar between both years, with variatons below fve points in both directons.

Figure 1. Overall satsfacton
Regarding the assessment of the TAs' work (Figure 2), the decrease in awareness of the TAs' tasks is signifcant. It was already quite low the frst year (around 50%), and this year it has gone down to 35.8%. Despite this, the assessment of the TAs' usefulness increased from 76% last year to 91.2% this year. The rest of the variables show very similar values, with minor variatons between the two academic years. Lastly, the comparatve analysis of satsfacton with the specifc tasks carried out by the TAs (Figure 3) shows a similar patern to that observed in previous results, with insignifcant variatons up and down. It is interestng to note that the assessment of the support given in the classroom has increased from 62% to 85.6%. Also noteworthy is the smaller increase from 74% to 80% in satsfacton with the qualifcaton tools.
Finally, regarding the qualitatve data (open ended questons), this year's teachers' comments revolve around the PIAP service, asking, for example, for the extension of the loan periods. By contrast, last year's teacher's comments revolved around their lack of awareness with respect to the TAs' responsibilites. This seems to indicate that even if the work of the TAs is stll largely unknown (as shown in the above data), the role of the TAs is nonetheless becoming more and more recognized.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Considering the feedback received from the teaching staf and the results obtained in last year's survey (CIDUI, 2012), coupled with the theoretcal arguments about collaboratve work, it seems relatvely safe to say: • The results of the teaching staf survey (academic year 2012-2013) show very high satsfacton.
• The comparatve data of the two teaching staf surveys (academic years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013) confrm the stated argument that collaboratve work provides more efciency and beter performance.
• The results from the current and former TAs show they fnd the experience to be a positve one. They are especially pleased to have learned new methods and procedures for completng group work.
Generally, it seems that the ESID is doing a good job and the collaboratve work approach is the best approach for carrying out their tasks. Nevertheless, some points ought to be discussed.
Regarding the specifc tasks completed, both years most of them were perceived as satsfactory; however, the assessment of support within the classroom has increased notably. This could be an indicator of the growing experience of the ESID over the three years. In additon, this demonstrates the importance of collaboratve work in order to overcome novel and unexpected incidents. For example, studies demonstrate that the use of collaboratve group work in psychology classes led to an increase in the number of students passing the course (Guàrdia-Olmos et al., 2013).
Despite the lack of awareness with regard to what is expected of the TAs, teachers who are aware report a great deal of satsfacton with TAs' diligence and efectveness when completng tasks. Thus, it seems clear, for the beneft of future projects, that we need to improve our communicaton through advertsing and promoton of the actvites performed by the ESID.
Finally, it is worth mentoning that the overall number of tasks carried out by the TAs this year has increased. In part, this is because the TAs' work has expanded to new work areas such are the collaboraton with the UAB's Solidarity Foundaton, the organisaton of academic events (e.g.: graduaton ceremony), and the managing of support programs for exchange students. Furthermore, compared with previous data, an increase in the degree of satsfacton concerning the traditonal services provided (Moodle support and PIAP) has been observed.
Taking all this into consideraton, we cautously believe that collaboratve work, with constant coordinaton, is the key to obtaining high quality work from the TAs. It is necessary to follow up the presented data with a standardized method in order to obtain consistent longitudinal analysis. It should also be noted that the high satsfacton values registered by both surveys not only reafrm the efciency of collaboratve work at diferent levels, but also indicate overall satsfacton with the approach. Moreover, it would be interestng to develop new ways to test the efectveness of collaboratve work in order to gain a beter understanding of this process and to be able to measure on a greater scale its degree of efectveness.