Co-creating the graduation journey of students with fellow supervisors and academic staff

About the project

This work builds upon student wellbeing research conducted in spring 2020.(Click here to read more about the results)

In October 2020, four researchers of IDE Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer, Rebecca Price, Eva Legemaate and Marie Van den Bergh started working on the research project: “Co-creating the Graduation Journey” funded by the TU Delft Study Climate program. The overall goal of this project is to research and learn how to better integrate wellbeing, learning and human connection in MSc student’s graduation journeys.

Approach

A systemic and co-creative design approach is used in this project, which means all stakeholders are involved connected to the students’ graduation journey and the interventions are co-created. The aim is to prototype how the study climate and support system of our students and academic staff can be improved by designing different interventions. As a result of this project, guidelines and, proven working principles on how to develop a support system for all people involved in the design students’ final project will be shared among a broader audience.

Student success

The motivation for this “Co-creating the Graduation Journey” project goes beyond student wellbeing. It is about student success. Focusing on student success in this project means: creating a learning environment where master students graduate within a reasonable time, have room for personal development, where there is attention for student wellbeing, where students self-regulate their personal learning objectives, where there is room for (skill)development outside the study program, and where students can work on self-actualization (1). An example is that students should be able to put reasonable expectations and have a realistic view of their graduation instead of putting impossible expectations to deliver a masterpiece.

Other perspectives 

Next to the student perspective they also look at the graduation supervisors and other academic staff that is involved in the graduation journey. Through interviews performed at IDE with different people connected to the graduation journey and workshop with supervisors, insights were gathered on their perspective. 

Co-creation workshop

The goal of this co-design session is to share and create a better understanding of what good supervision means, consists of, and what the challenges are for supervisors and academic staff. The project team will share gathered insights from the experiences of students and supervisors with the graduation project. Next to this they will facilitate a discussion among the participants about their experience with supervising students with different profiles (e.g., Dutch international, students with a disability). 

Supervisors and academic staff are invited to join this co-design workshop on 29 March from 15:00 till 17:00.

Click here to sign up.

More information

For more about this project watch the showcase of their first intervention or visit their website.