London South Bank University Arts & Media Department

1. London South Bank UniversityArts & Media Department

2. PROJECT TITLE:Developing the Personal in Personal Development

3. Catalyst for change — NSS results • How to improve students’ sense of their own development? • How to improve students’ confidence in their ability to learn, to become employable and to communicate? • An exercise in perception management rather than a change of delivery per se.

4. Main Points • Psychology dept. to devise a questionnaire that tracks students’ expectations of the course and levels of confidence in the first instance, and thereafter identifies the relationship between their achievements and their sense of the course or self as a facilitator of those achievements. • A focus on language to highlight learning and progress (changing perceptions) • Develop workshops that highlight the value of performativity in learning environments and in creative practice (as both content and process) to enhance student confidence and communication skills • E-Portfolios to highlight success • Collaboration to drive success

5. PDP — 4 methods for apprehending progress • Identifying connectivity within the course (the developmental logic of modules within the course) • Recording and mapping students’ respective journeys through the course and identifying how things they have created are dependent upon those things they have previously learnt and created • Self Assessment (relative to self, peers, specialismand grades; development of networks). A lack of progress in one may be mitigated by greater progress in another. • Making clear plans to consolidate progress and ensure ongoing development and life-long learning

6. Language • Changing the language we use in our course literature, in our assessment and in our feedback to replicate that of the NSS. • Developing a more rigorous approach to PDP and letting students know whenever they have made progress in any area

7. Case Study: Digital Film and Video • Less denial of service (finding a way to allow all students to produce their own films) • Students develop a Showreel in 3rd year which demonstrates their progress and shows off their talent (for prospective employers) • PDP — managing progress • Vertical Integration across years shows each level how far they have come (or how far they will develop).

8. Case Study: Language Games • THE CONFIDENCE TRICK: • When you can identify your own progress and personal development, you can be confident about a future of learning and growth and the success that follows.

9. Case Study: Language Games - Learning Outcomes • Students will develop a greater awareness of the dramatic and metaphorical potential in their manipulation of space on screen, and over time. Following on from Video Portraits this will give students a set of skills that sets them up for the second year where they will take on the challenge of representing documentary subjects and fictional characters who must be realised in visual, as much as narrative, terms.

10. Case Study: Language Games - Transferable Skills • Research, whether practical or theoretical, is key to developing the confidence to act in unfamiliar situations and to solve unfamiliar problems. Preparation turns unfamiliar problems into familiar ones. Likewise, the ability to negotiate with creative collaborators, and to communicate your ideas with clarity and confidence, is something that comes with the kind of practice on offer here.

11. Case Study: Language Games - Assessment • By drawing upon the experience of previous modules and assessment you will be expected to demonstrate a working process that includes research and other preparatory work designed to give you, your peers and your tutors confidence in your vision and methods.

12. Case Study: Language Games - Feedback • Your ability to identify the dramatic potential in this scenario is a clear sign of your development as a writer. What you are proposing is both viable and original, but in order to be effective (and therefore satisfying for you) you need the audience to be in a position where they feel they know what the possible effects of any action might be in order that they can then meaningfully engage in the actual events that unfold. Your ability to have confidence in both the production and reception of this film willdepend on your ability to make the dramatic beats of the narrative clear on the page first. You should continue to refine and develop this script (as we all must) if you are going to realise your ultimate ambition.

13. Current position • ‘work in progress’ • Stage 1 deadline Jan 2013 • PDP (progress tutorials underway) • Language (use in lecturers, being embedded in documents e.g. critical evaluations) • Workshops (Pilot planned November 2012) • Questionnaire (Draft out for consultation)

14. Longer term • BA Revalidation (March 2012, embed findings) • Follow up questionnaires • Review success of workshops for wider dissemination • Roll out student showcase Centre for Arts & Media Professional Practice for all courses • Roll out internal social media site for student work in progress/research

15. Additional outcomes • Staff development • Greater understanding of student concerns • Change management / preparing for the future