(Re-)Discovering the treasure within – The contribution of a Design Your Life Module to Undergraduate Education

Abstract

[EN] This paper presents a description of a Design Your Life (DYL) module delivered to a multi-disciplinary group of undergraduate students. This approach as developed in Stanford University uses principles of Design Thinking to support students to consider their own agency and development pathways as they journey through university and beyond. The implementation of this programme is underpinned by an active evaluation strategy. As part of which, three focus groups were conducted with 15 students who had participated in the module over the past three semesters. This paper presents an analysis of student feedback on their participation, locating this feedback in the context of an overarching theory of student engagement. In so doing, this paper seeks to contribute to how these approaches can support students in their journey as active learners and, by building their resilience and self-efficacy, facilitate their discovery of the treasure within.