Make a difference in the world
Learn key transferable skills that show your ability to act as a leader and effective team player
Credits: 20 Level 4 credits
Mode of study: additional part-time online study, to run alongside degree and other main courses
Notional hours: 200 hours
Schedule: Moodle open from 15 January 2024 with asynchronous content. First synchronous sessions scheduled weekly from Monday 22 January 2024 until Monday 29 April 2024.
Level: suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of all year groups
Contact: myport-ulc@port.ac.uk
Module overview
This interdisciplinary online module allows you to gain additional University credits which demonstrate your ability to act as a compassionate leader and effective team player, with key transferable employability skills and characteristics - and the ability to make a difference in the world.
As the second cohort of students on this course we will collaborate to co-construct our learning journey that will enable you to continuously reflect upon your own development as a learner, leader, and partner in the learning process. This module incorporates continuous reflection and evaluation of learning to enhance and inspire current and future delivery.
The course will therefore be run as a piece of participant action research: you and your course cohort will join the course leaders in researching the impact of the approach to learning demonstrated in the module.
Your module credits will be earned as you build a portfolio of evidence demonstrating your ability to embrace learning challenges and critically reflect on your experiences; to work effectively in teams and working communities; and to lead others in addressing key challenges such as improving wellbeing/mental health, sustainability and social justice. Students will learn and practise the following skills:
- Emotion regulation for successful learning (eg. mindfulness and self-compassion skills);
- Values-led and strengths-based goal setting;
- Setting boundaries; assertive communication;
- Empathic listening; peer support;
- Equality, diversity and inclusion competence;
- Effective teamwork; inclusive community-building;
- Bystander intervention; antiracism and allyship;
- Restorative conflict resolution; sustainability activism;
- Critical reflection; learning co-creation and partnership.
The course also offers a way for you to clearly demonstrate your development of the following hallmarks of a Portsmouth graduate:
- Be an effective team player, able to provide leadership and to support the success of others;
- Be an informed citizen, with a sense of responsibility allied to a commitment to ethical practice and social justice issues, such as equality, respect and sustainability;
- Be intellectually curious, embrace challenges and seize opportunities for development;
- Be proactive in recognising and addressing personal development needs, and able to make informed career decisions.
Please note that this is a standalone additional module - the credits do not count towards your degree course, but they are a way to demonstrate valuable additional skills and attributes.
Timetable
- 12 sessions as part of a 20 credit module at Level 4, with fortnightly sessions
- Synchronous sessions scheduled for Mondays 12.00pm-2.00pm to conclude the fortnightly session and briefly introduce the next session
- Course opening on 15 January 2024.
- First synchronous session on 22 January 2024
- Course numbers capped at 40.
- Course leaders/Tutors: Dr Catherine Murgatroyd and Tom Lowe
- Your learning journey - Introduction to Learning Well/Emotion regulation for learning
Start date: 15 January 2024
Synchronous session date: 22 January 2024 - Facing Challenges - Safety, boundaries, saying Yes and No
Start date: 22 January 2024
Synchronous session date: 29 January 2024 - Building supportive connections - Supporting self and others
Start date: 29 January 2024
Synchronous session date: 05 February 2024 - Setting your direction - Values and valued identities
Start date: 05 February 2024
Synchronous session date: 12 February 2024 - Growing your learning mindset - Personal action plans
Start date: 12 February 2024
Synchronous session date: 19 February 2024 - Deepening your understanding - Reflection, giving and receiving feedback
Start date: 19 February 2024
Synchronous session date: 26 February 2024 - Consolidation week - What is Leadership?
Start date: 26 February 2024
Synchronous session date: 4 March 2024 - Sustainability and activism
Start date: 4 March 2024
Synchronous session date: 11 March 2024 - Positionality, intersectionality and ally-ship
Start date: 11 March 2024
Synchronous session date: 18 Mar 2024 - Bystander intervention and restorative practice
Start date: 18 March 2024
Synchronous session date: 15 April 2024 - Brave spaces, antiracism, and introduction to decolonising
Start date: 15 April 2024
Synchronous session date: 22 April 2024 - Co-creation and learning partnership
Start date: 22 April 2024
Synchronous session date: 29 April 2024
Assessment
Pass/fail - no grading
1. Portfolio including:
- Record of personal leadership activity and reflection on this (minimum of 5 items).
- Peer assessed share-able resource (video or other) to inspire other students, making a personal statement about a learning challenge you have faced and how you have overcome it (drawing on learning and strategies from the course).
- Final reflective piece contributing to participant action research and co-creation of the course - reviewing change in skills and confidence (reflecting on before/after measure), providing feedback on personal impact of the course including what worked best and what was less successful.
2. Participation in the final synchronous session conducted as a co-creation focus group session, including helping to review and refine course materials.
Informal co-creation and feedback throughout using digital tools such as Menti and Padlet.