Students are Almost as Effective as Professors in Tutorial Teaching

Nicolas Salamanca Acosta | University of Melbourne

Many universities rely on student instructors for small group teaching in tutorials and lab sessions. While student instructors might be inexpensive, little is known about their teaching effectiveness. In a setting where students are randomly assigned to either a student instructor or a more senior instructor, we show that student instructors are almost as effective as senior instructors in improving their students' short- and long-run academic performance. We further assess the impact of student instructors in different courses, across the grade distribution, and on several other educational and labor market outcomes, and find little evidence that student instructors underperform relative to other instructors. Our results suggest that the use of student instructors can be an effective way for universities to reduce their cost with negligible negative effects on students.