A presentation from Connect More by Tim Coughlan and Kate Lister from The Open University Every student has unique circumstances, experiences, challenges and goals, and these are often invisible to educators and staff working to support them. Our Journey is a creative and flexible tool for students to map, log, plan and represent their study journey. This enables students to reflect on their experiences, celebrate their achievements and identify skills gained through overcoming challenges, all of which contribute to positive mental wellbeing and growth mindset. Meanwhile, educators can learn from representations of student journeys, meaning the design of programmes, classes and study support can be informed by student voice and experience. Finally, when student journey representations are shared by students and educators as a co-owned artefact, this can build a powerful, reciprocal learning relationship in which students are supported to succeed.

1. 16-18 June
Our Journey: representing,
reflecting on and learning
from student journeys
Tim Coughlan, lecturer, The Open University
Kate Lister, manager for accessibility and inclusive
practice, The Open University

2. Mental health in higher education

4. 01/07/2020
Mental Health in HE
Research has shown that students with mental health
difficulties are:
• Less likely to complete a course or module (Richardson,
2015)
• Less likely to attain higher grades (Eisenberg et al, 2009)
• More likely to drop out of university (Baker, 2017)
• More likely to experience long term consequences in terms
of future employment, earning potential and overall health
(Eisenberg et al, 2007)
We also know that while learning has been shown to help
mental wellbeing, university study and culture has been shown
to trigger mental health issues (Tinklin et al, 2005; Markoulakis
and Kirsh, 2013; Ribeiro et al, 2018)
Progression
Completion
Attainment
Employment

5. Mental health in HE: stats
Office for Students says:
“In 2016-17, 86.8 per cent of students with mental health conditions continued
their studies after their first year, compared to 90.2 per cent of all
undergraduates.”
“In 2017-18, graduates who had reported a mental health condition were also
less likely to be awarded a 1st or 2:1.”
“Among students who graduated in 2016-17, 69.2 per cent of those with
declared mental health conditions progressed into skilled work or further study
compared with 73.1 per cent of all undergraduates.”
“The proportion of UK-domiciled full-time students studying in England reporting
a mental health condition has increased from 1.4 per cent in 2012-13 to 3.5 per
cent in 2017-18”
5

6. 01/07/2020
16844
12813
105729383
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000
Sight
Hearing
Mobility
Manual skills
Speech
Learning difficulty
Mental health
Fatigue/pain
Other
Unseen
Autism
Oct-16 Oct-17 Oct-18 Oct-19
OU disability disclosure figures

7. 01/07/2020
OU module completion gaps

8. What can we do about this?
• Support students with mental health needs in a timely way
• Be proactive in promoting wellbeing and anticipating mental
health triggers or issues
• Empower students to build skills and strategies to overcome
adversity, build resilience, manage their mental wellbeing and
celebrate their achievements
• Accept that HE needs to change, and work to understand
how by learning about diverse student experiences and
journeys
• Adapt our tuition, curricula and learning environments, so
they are inclusive and engender wellbeing
Support
Pre-empt
Empower
Learn
Adapt

9. Representing and reflecting on journeys

10. Why represent student journeys?
10
Imagine you are going on a journey.
How might you represent it to friends
or family?
How might you reflect on it afterwards?
What would you gain from this?

11. How a travel agent represents your journey
11

12. HEI views of ‘The Student Journey’
12

13. The student perspective
We held workshops and online events with our
Students Association and Disabled Students
Group to understand research priorities.
• Combinations of events over time and their
impact are unclear
• Diversity of students and their experiences is
not visible in data
• Feedback mechanisms are limited
13

14. Participatory design for student journey representation
Initial conclusions
• Journey representations would be insightful to
staff and a valuable opportunity to encourage
student reflection
• The student should decide what to represent
e.g. where their study journey started
• The journey should celebrate achievements as
well as challenges faced
• Not just academic events. Work, home, life,
finance, etc. all impact on student success
• Sharing and communicating journeys should be
supported
• It should be fun, not like an assignment
Image CC Pru Mitchell https://www.flickr.com/photos/pru/3360451741014

15. Our Journey
Designing a new approach

16. Our Journey
• An accessible and engaging structure to
represent student journeys
• The events and emotions that students
experience from their perspectives
• Online tools and physical resources for
face-to-face workshops
16

17. An example student journey
17

18. 18

19. 19

20. Trial findings

21. Trial results
• 54 students across 5 qualifications took part
• all had completed at least one module of study
• created a retrospective journey about their study to date
• and were asked to complete a survey (36 submitted)

22. Trial results continued
• 34 participants created more than five event cards
• 20 participants created more than 10 event cards
• Longest was 54 cards
Qualification Journeys Average number of cards
BA (Honours) Business Management 8 9.13
BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care 9 9.44
BA/BSc (Honours) Open degree 19 9.89
Bachelor of Laws (Honours) 7 9.43
BSc (Honours) Natural Sciences 11 10.27
Total 54 9.72

23. Survey results (n=36)
Our Journey prompted participants to think about:
• the difficulties they have faced (94%)
• their study achievements (91%)
• their goals (77%)
• the skills they developed or demonstrated through their studies (74%)
• how they respond to difficulties (69%)
• their mental wellbeing (66%)
• their approach to studying (66%)
• what they want to do next (63%)

24. What’s next?
• Try it out and learn more: https://ourjourney.ac.uk/
• Seeking collaborations to pilot Our Journey in other institutions
• Contact: Tim.Coughlan@open.ac.uk; Kate.Lister@open.ac.uk