Title Course directors’ reflections on educational design choices in near-peer teaching of procedural skills Purpose Near-peer teaching (NPT) is widely used to substitute faculty in undergraduate training of procedural skills. Research suggests there is more to capitalize on in NPT when implemented deliberately, leading us to the following research questions: What were course directors’ design choices when creating procedural skills courses with near-peers? What informed these design choices? Materials and Methods This descriptive qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with 25 course directors from 12 countries following reflexive thematic analysis. Participants were sampled through a Medline search, identifying procedural skills course directors who had recently published on NPT, complemented by other recognized experts. Interviews were transcribed and analysed combining inductive and deductive approaches, whereas Cognitive Apprenticeship informed the deductive analysis. Results Course directors appointed near-peers to teach standardizable, protocolized skills to small groups of beginners/intermediates. Additionally, near-peers and faculty were often instructed to join forces. Considering near-peers’ limited content expertise, near-peers were typically appointed to teach hands-on skills, while faculty provided clinical context and supervision. Some programs played to NP strengths of social and cognitive congruence by having them assess students’ learning needs or supporting their transition to clinical practice. Conclusions Course directors deliberately appointed near-peers and faculty to complementary roles catering to near-peer competence. Capitalizing on near-peer strengths by involving them in the co-construction of education and supporting students’ transition to practice offers promising avenues to expand near-peer contribution to teaching. Explanation of all the instruments used in the data collection (including phrasing of items in surveys) Baseline Questionnaire for interview participants, semi-structured interview guide

Explanation of the data files: what data is stored in what file? The study contained 25 transcripts of interviews and one baseline questionnaire Folder name -.> Description Baseline Questionnaire -> Questions in Baseline questionnaire, containing demographic data on the course directors and administrative information on the courses they developed Participant and course Information -> Contains results from Baseline questionnaire Transcripts Interview 1-25 -> Transcripts of the 25 interviews In case of qualitative data: description of the structure of the data files The Transcript files contain the original focus group interview data in German. The Participant information sheet contain demographic data of the focus group participants