 Good morning, almost. Good morning, still, and thanks for coming to this session. I hope you're enjoying the conference so far for this session. We're joined with Elizabeth, Tim, Alison, Ann and Charlotte, all from the Open University. And their presentation is titled, Journeying Together for Student Personal Development. Come join us over to you. Thanks very much. We've organised what's potentially quite an ambitious presentation because we wanted it to be very interactive and sort of mirror the journey that we've been on together and also to illustrate the tool that we're talking about. We're not sure how much of that functionality we're going to be able to manage. We've just been doing some very quick practising, but we hope to illustrate as much of it as we can and you'll be able to access the tool and play with it as well yourself afterwards. So just to say that we're joined today by three of our I'm going to say alumni because we've got Elizabeth and Ann who had just finished our master's programme. They haven't quite got their award yet because the exam boards are about to happen, but they've completed three years of study with us. And Charlotte, who is already an alumna of a couple of years now and they're part of our peer PDP personal development planning, coaching and mentoring team. And they've been part of the student staff collaboration that we wanted to talk about today and also joined by Tim, you can see the full names of my colleague from the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. And we were a bigger team and we've credited all the other student staff who are members of the team below. So we wanted to sort of start where we started with why we needed to do this work and find this tool and use this tool that we wanted to talk about and how that's part of the journey that we've been on and that we've been using to support student journeys through their study, how it's linked to personal development, planning and self-reflection. And hopefully we'll have time to think about at the end the takeaways for you and for us. So we have got some polls where we were hoping that you could have a space to start talking about your students. And what we wanted to do with this was to help create an avatar to illustrate through this tool. We know we can't see all of the comments in your Q&A comments stream. So we'll work on something. But if you go into this link, which I think somebody will be putting into the chat stream for you now, you'll be able to see the results. So before we we're going to talk about the students at the Open University, it may be a space for you to sort of think about the types of students that you have and there's some questions in there to prompt you. It's not sort of a free free for all open question. So our students illustrate sort of the diversity that may be the representative of where you are as well. But we are a distance learning university entirely and obviously even more entirely without our opportunities for face to face residential, open days, study days, as well as you will all have been affected by it as well, even more dramatically, probably. You can see that we have, this is data from 2019, you know, about 22% of our students declaring a disability, which may be higher proportion than where you are because of the abilities to have flexible and accessible study when it's entirely through a distance. This is largely skewed, the age range data is largely skewed by the undergraduate population and we're representing the postgraduate population here today. But even on our postgraduate courses, we've got people who are retired and people who've come through on our programmes. They are graduates already, but a really wide age range and a really wide range of backgrounds, perspectives and professional experiences. Most of our students, particularly on the postgraduate courses are in full time work as many of yours will be as well. I'm undertaking this as part-time study and we sort of see them as applied courses to help those courses, they help that work and those activities whilst they're studying, not waiting for the end to sort of get a qualification that will then help. And we have people coming on the courses, not specifically for, you know, progressing their careers, but to learn more about the the activities that they're involved with, whether it's employment or volunteering, we represent the childhood and youth qualification as well with students that aren't necessarily in work, in employed placements to think about their own personal growth and obviously they choose their courses based on that as they do where you are. So we are creating an avatar student today. So we're just wanting you to think, but I think we haven't got a lot of interactivity between you as an audience to the presentation and our hosts, our presenters here. So think about how a student would be starting their journey, what sort of things they'd be worrying about, concerned about, excited about as they register. And so hopefully if I press this tab and I will be able to show you live and can somebody tell me whether that is on the screen? Yes, there are. OK, brilliant. But you can make it bigger. Yeah. OK, so this is a live version of the image you just saw. And hopefully some of the presenters will be adding some cards. And I just remember Tim's prompt to refresh this. Have we got anybody adding a card for our student that's joining us today, our virtual student who's just about to join a course? I started typing one and I noticed Jim has mentioned that perhaps we could consider a student with a disability. So I'll try and feed that in. Oh, lovely. Yeah, thank you. So we'll toggle back and forth to this avatar's journey. A couple of points in the presentation. I just was hoping to get the first card shown so that you could see what it looks like. And then we'll tell you a little bit more about it. We've got a card coming through. I'll keep refreshing. Anybody? Oh, yes, we've got some appearing now. So somebody's considering their study. They can't wait to get going. They're enthusiastic. There's emoticons. There's images to represent the events that they're reflecting on. And there's opportunities to add reflected comments. And then you can flip the card as there's more space on the other side. So let's go back to the presentation. Oh, unfortunately, the slide looked exactly the same as the... Here we go. The slide looked exactly the same as the journey. OK, so over to you, Tim. And I think Charlotte, you're going to be talking a little bit about how we've come across and used this tool. Thanks. OK, thank you, Alison. So, yeah, our journey is a tool that myself and colleagues have been involved in creating, and it came out of a lot of conversations with students, specifically our disabled students group, and what we needed to focus on to support them better. And one of the key areas was their ability to communicate and represent the experiences they were having. So that kind of fed into a process of workshops and co-creation that's led to the tool that Alison was just demonstrating there. And now pass over to you, Charlotte. Thank you, Tim. So, yeah, then from kind of our perspective and the modules that we were undertaking, we kind of used this as a sub-project almost and looked at how we could develop this tool for PDP specifically. So within our kind of coaching role for PDP and our mentoring role, we worked together using kind of like workshop-style meetings, things like that, and we looked at how we could then fit that into what we do in terms of PDP. And then we decided to kind of launch that with the current cohort. And then you'll see some of the cards later on that we used and how we actually incorporated that and then how we've been able to use student coaches within PDP as advocates and being able to kind of use this tool and being able to support the students further in terms of PDP along the modules that they're taking. And then you can see that we've got examples of some badges that we've then also been utilising as ways of kind of encouraging students to get involved with using not just this tool, but also becoming involved with being a PDP coach and working alongside peers and other students on different modules so that we can actually support them with PDP elements of the modules that they're on because we kind of support modules that we've already been part of so that then we have an understanding of the module that we're undertaking and then we can kind of further support students then as they're undergoing that process. And that's where we've been able to fit our journey as a tool into this as well. Brilliant, that's excellent. Thanks Charlotte, that's a really good tour de force. We know we're really short of time and that we've probably built in too much interactivity. So if you don't mind Charlotte, we'll just move on to telling a bit more about how the tool fits in and then we'll come back to you talking about the cards and a little bit later. Thanks, Kim. Yeah, so I just wanted to prompt people to think a bit about how we represent the journeys our students have with us. And one of the things we really looked at was the ways that different universities do this, including our own. So this is just one example quickly and actually from the University of Hawaii and thought it was a really nice kind of representation in some ways. But of course it is a static thing and it is what the university thinks the student journey should be like. And this is actually one from the Open University a few years old now. But it's very basic really and sort of assumes this simple cycle of completing modules until we finally complete a qualification. And it doesn't really represent the complexity of the student journey. So I think that's as much as we'd like to say on that. But it's a really interesting thing to analyse. I think how universities represent their student journeys and a lot of them do it. They have some way of doing it. Thanks, Tim. So we have got another poll that we thought you might find. I know it's very good at sharing practices. So we've got a poll set up if that link could go into the audience chat. That would be great about the sort of tools that you use to support the student journey. We were going to be able to display those and have a look at them. But I think we'll just leave that and see if there's any time at the end because I don't want to limit the contributions, particularly from our students who've joined us today. So we want this as an image taken from one of our modules, the sort of backpack of materials and resources that we're all sort of engaged with in induction at the moment, are encouraging students to get into their backpack ready for this year's study. And so we would just go back to our avatar. They could be anywhere on this journey and they can use these cards to reflect on events that happen, good experiences, challenging experiences, but build their own version of this journey through the card system you've seen. But we want to illustrate through the avatar the sort of impact of things that sort of knock these journeys out of kilter and life happens to all of us and all of our students through the year. We're all particularly aware of that at the moment. So if I toggle back to our journey live, hopefully our presenters will have reacted to that event and just refresh. Oh, we've got the journey appearing here. We've got a student. Oh, taking one of our badge courses. We have a Becoming an Ethical Researcher badge. So this avatar has taken that course and got that badge and they're proud of that. That's something we need within the modules. Then we've got finding information, filling in forms nervously. You can see them building from bottom right up to top left. I should have said that all of the students represented here today are really reflecting the use of this tool that we piloted on our dissertation module. So the 12,000 word and final output of our master's programmes. And so obviously the cards that we've designed and we'll talk about those in a minute are particularly tailored to that. So if we got, I'll just refresh again and see if we've got somebody reacting to that bereavement that's happened to this virtual student. We've got somebody posted something. Just refreshing, hoping to pick it up. Anybody else? I'll just wait one more second and I'll have to pick it up later if not. OK, anybody? I shall toggle back to the presentation if not. OK, but hopefully you can get the idea. Right, so I hope this will go back to the presentation. OK, smashing. OK, so Tim, if you just wanted to say a little bit more about the tool. Yeah, just to say, you've seen how the cards kind of go into the journey and we kept a quite simple structure for that. But they build up to a big journey which we kept this kind of game aesthetic which came out of the workshops originally. This idea is a bit, you know, studies a bit like snakes and ladders people have said and things like this. You know, you've got your ups and downs. So it's not a game as such, but it has this sort of snake-like appearance. The study journey is not a straight line. You know, it's kind of the thing we're trying to emphasise there. But we're trying to make it fun and visually appealing at the same time and something that, you know, hopefully students can reflect over and find it a bit different to an assignment. It was one of the other feedback comments we got really was, you know, don't make it like another essay. Make it interesting and a bit fun. We've had feedback, haven't we, Tim, already, that actually we used it to a particular point in the module. People go, well, why can't we have this earlier? We'd like to play with this earlier. So that's our change, one of the changes for this year. Yeah, and I can just be... OK, I was just going to say, Jim, there's a comment there about how you go about defining the journey. And one of the points there is actually quite interesting is that it doesn't, students sort of recognise that there wasn't really a single start point. So you might say, oh, will it start to registration? But students we talked to were very much thinking about, you know, their motivation to study or sometimes they had a false start with study. So in terms of defining the journey, one of the interesting things is the start and the end point. But there's a lot more into that. Yeah, no, that's really interesting, isn't it? Because we that's the other thing that's come out of our discussions that people don't just want to use it, you know, on this module, they want to we use it across modules, because the Open University has got a very modular structure, you know, to cover those breaks between study. And also it's a tool that sits outside the Open University system so that it's yours once you've registered for it to use beyond the Open University. And that Charlotte, you know, you've been using that and you're no longer a registered student, haven't you? So, yeah, that's worth saying that this journey is very flexible, you know, it's like, but it can be as long as you want it to be. So I just want to move on to, and I think we need to go sort of quite quickly, I'm just looking at the time, because we haven't heard from Elizabeth and Anne either yet. So if we put very briefly about supporting PDP, again, we've got another poll just for you to be able to share in the audience your PDP support materials, anything you want to share with one another. And we'll move on to just sort of a very brief overview of how we use it, so how it links in. So over to you, Anne. Sorry. Hi there, everyone. Sorry, I was so busy responding to a comment. Yes, this was a really beautiful point that among some of the students that are here. Oh, can you hear me? Yes, yes, we can. Lovely. Among some of the students that are here, some work very methodically and meticulously and like a system, and that's where following the cycle worked really well for them and the cards worked in an order. What we also realised though through the PDP was that other students who enjoy much more organic and not necessarily, they might jump from a plan to a record. This could still be reflected in the cards, and that was one of the joys for us when we did share our cards and our experiences of using them. Lovely. Thank you. And Elizabeth. Yes, so one of the ways that I felt this resonated with me is the wave of the academic and the personal and the professional dimensions were all linked together. As Peter was saying in the chat actually, your journey is not just about your study. It's about things outside your study and your own life and in your work. And the framework that we were using was one where we had these three areas, the academic, the personal, professional, you can see the Venn diagram there, and then it meets in the middle because the three areas come together and interact. So none of the three are really prioritised in the journey on Julie. At least, you know, automatically you will get times when some of them are more predominant, but they're all equally valued. Yeah, that's great. And you encouraged the students to set goals in specific areas, but also to look for those overlaps, don't you? That's great. Thanks, Elizabeth. And so Charlotte, if you want to talk about it being linked to the employability, then that'll be great. Absolutely, yeah. So, you know, when we're thinking about the PDP journey, we try and think about kind of longer term goals as well and how we can then incorporate this PDP journey, not just into our studies, but then perhaps how that can affect other areas, you know, like we were just mentioning outside of our life in study as well. So with the OU Employability Framework, there's certain elements of this that fit in really well with PDP. And we kind of then use PDP as a tool for kind of self-coaching and peer coaching. So, you know, as Alison's already mentioned, even though I'm an alumnus, I would still actually employ a lot of the PDP things that we did into my work now, and it really helps in terms of being able to set goals, solve problems, think about my own self-awareness. So there are many ways in which actually PDP links very closely to employability and being able to kind of move that forward. So, yeah, that's how that kind of links me well. Great, thanks. So then, you know, when we think about our journey as a tool and I mentioned these cards earlier, and obviously we can see some of them being produced while we're kind of live on this session, what we actually did was work together thinking about the modules that we currently use our journey for. And we actually came up with some kind of preset cards as well that may help students on their journey throughout the module, so two of which have potentially been published. I've just gone live to that and I'll make them published. I think that wasn't quite what we decided, but so this is an example of one of those cards. Do you want to talk about that Charlotte? I can do, yep. So when we look to the module, we look to areas where these sort of cards would be really useful in terms of maybe supporting the students further. So, for example, this one, planning your writing, we thought it would be really good to reflect on, you know, how students are going to actually think about what they're going to write for assignments. And then it means that they can almost go back to that in their journey, think about how they felt about it, think about what they're going to do. And then when they look back at their journey later on, they can see how they maybe kind of overcame that and it's really good in terms of reflection. And then the kind of other variety of cards that we have will then kind of mirror different areas within the module. So you kind of build up this overall journey within the module itself to show the students' journey that they've been on, as well as being able to create their own as well. So it kind of supports students with ones that we've created, but also then they can incorporate their own ones within that too. Yeah, and just to say, I'm aware that we've already run out over time, so sorry about that, I'll leave the chair to guide us. But yes, so these ones that we've built, they link to the gaining or applying for the digital badge for employability, because these are all mapped against different attributes of the employability framework. And so if you've completed enough cards, then that's your eligibility for that. So if the chair's going to be generous with... Yeah, this is our last slide, so thanks. It's just really over to Ann and Elizabeth, particularly because I think Charlotte's had a little bit more time to book, so just the takeaways for you would be great. Yeah, the takeaways for me were definitely how accessible it was, how it reminded me of the highs and the lows, and that I wasn't alone in any of those experiences. Thanks, Ann. Yes, we had a similar experience in that. We noticed when we shared our journeys, Ann and I and some other students, we talked about them, and we all had these really low points, where we were totally despairing. And then we had high points and celebrations, and in a way just the opportunity to stand back and recognise that and affirm it and say, well, this happens, it's part of the study journey. It helped us to cope with it better. Yeah, that's great, Elizabeth. So we have got some references that we can share, and perhaps in another format, if we can share the slides, I'm sure I'll be thinking about different ways of disseminating. But just to thank you on behalf of all of us, and I hope you've been able to at least see a taster of the tool. And you've had a good chat, I can hear you have, but I haven't been able to see it in a bit personally, but I'm looking forward to seeing it with you. Yeah, thank you, Alison, and everyone for your presentation. It was really interesting, and like you said, there's been a lot of chats happening. If everyone could use their best emoji to thank them for their presentation, that would be great. Yeah, and Alison has provided her detail up there, so do follow up with her if you have further questions. Thank you.