{"id":5414,"date":"2022-04-07T14:46:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T13:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/humteachlearn\/?p=5414"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:38:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T15:38:15","slug":"my-passport-self-reflection-059","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/humteachlearn\/2022\/04\/07\/my-passport-self-reflection-059\/","title":{"rendered":"My Passport to Success! – Empowering Students in Higher Education through Critical Self Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” fullwidth=”on” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_fullwidth_menu _builder_version=”3.0.106″ menu_id=”7″ submenu_direction=”downwards” fullwidth_menu=”off” background_layout=”dark” module_class=”main-navigation” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#1d1d1d”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ meta=”off” featured_placement=”above” featured_image=”off” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Intro” _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Given the strong emphasis on skills\u00a0development to be employability ready (P. De Langeet al. 2006) and concerns around students\u2019 well-being, this project seeks to promote an inclusive and cohesive approach\u00a0in building self-directed learners through the academic advising process. It is also an innovative way to ensure that students come prepared for\u00a0academic advising meetings and can track their own learning journey throughout their time at university.<\/p>\n

Project background<\/h2>\n

As lockdown began, the Programme Director received feedback from students on the BSc Accounting Programme that they felt disconnected from\u00a0their academic advisor and were in greater need of support. This was indicative of the challenges faced across the sector as in the Pearson\/Wonkhe student expectations survey (July 2020) where students indicated that one of the main ways online learning could be improved was through academic\u00a0support – more 1:1 time with tutors. However, the academic advisors were also struggling with extra workload demands placed on them.<\/p>\n

Hear Reimi introduce her project in this video:<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_video _builder_version=”3.17.6″ src=”https:\/\/video.manchester.ac.uk\/weblounge-files\/ffffffff-894c-cdba-0000-017f79ce0820″ image_src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/humteachlearn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/205\/2022\/03\/VideoOverlay-059.jpg” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n

How we addressed the challenge<\/h2>\n

Considering the challenge of lack of time for academic advisors and increased need of support for students we started this project to improve the\u00a0quality of academic advising meetings and to get students more engaged in autonomous learning.<\/p>\n

We created an Academic Advising workbook for students called ‘My Passport to Success’ to encourage critical self-reflection and help students become independent learners with a growth\u00a0mindset (Carol Dweck, 2008; Biggs and Tang, 2011). This workbook which guides students through the degree programme enables them to thrive by fully supporting\u00a0their academic, well-being and employability needs.<\/p>\n

\"MSWe used Microsoft Teams to deploy the passport initiative by creating separate Teams for each academic advisor with channels for each year group to host the passport documents which were password protected to safeguard privacy, within the shared collaboration space. We built a sense of\u00a0belonging (Wenger, 1998) for each advisee group to encourage collaboration and sharing of useful messages with their academic advisor.<\/p>\n

We also used the chat\u00a0functionality for ongoing interactions and video calls for 1:1 academic advising meetings which were time saving and easy to manage once\u00a0scheduled. It was a more personalised and informal way to connect with academic advisors. The main benefit of using Teams was that it helped\u00a0alleviate concerns around students\u2019 mental well-being by providing direct access to advisees in a trusted space especially in a challenging academic\u00a0climate. Teams also offered greater flexibility for timely responses with the Teams chat app on the mobile device (Quinn, 2011).<\/p>\n

\"MyLearner outcomes<\/h2>\n

We ran a survey at the program level with specific questions covering the passport initiative to gather feedback from students. A total of 36 students\u00a0participated in the detailed survey with 15 being from Year 1, 13 from Year 2 and 8 from the Final Year. Based on the results, 53% of students completed\u00a0their passports before their personal tutor meetings 22% after their personal tutor meetings and 25% did not complete it.<\/p>\n

Below is a summary of the overall student’s learning\u00a0experience collated as part of this survey.<\/p>\n

Some of the positives highlighted by students include the following:<\/p>\n