Platform content: 66 self-directed learning modules – three levels of Life Skills

Persona Life Skills online learning now includes three levels of My Guided Tours – 66 x 20 minute self-directed learning modules focused on developing one of 22 life skills from our six Skillsets, as a building block for success in social, learning and work contexts.

13-Nov-22

By Dr Leila Khouja Walker, Chief Product Officer

The Persona Life Skills online learning platform is unique in secondary school student personal development and Social-Emotional Learning provision. It uses a unique personality insights framework specially developed for young people, to inform, improve and accelerate students’ acquisition of social-emotional skills, through understanding of self and others.

Persona Life Skills uses a learning metaphor where students explore an archipelago of islands to develop skills that help them navigate their life journey. Teacher-facilitated 'Island' learning modules are based around life challenges, such as dealing with unexpected events, preparing for exams or managing friendships, and are designed for teacher-facilitated learning. They focus on three Life Skills per module. 

The platform now includes three levels of 15-20 minute self-directed learning modules – 'My Guided Tours'. There are 66 modules across three levels:

• Level 1 'Start' is where students learn what each Life Skill is all about and begin to develop it.
  
  
• In Level 2 'Apply' they apply the self-awareness they have discovered in the personality insights section of platform, to take the Life Skills learning further.
  
  
• And in Level 3 'Challenge' they explore their level of adaptability and consider how that affects the way they use Life Skills in interactions with other people.

Each self-directed module is focused on developing just one of the 22 Life Skills from our six Skillsets, as a building block for wellbeing in social, learning and work contexts. 

A dashboard helps teachers identify any students reporting lower learning acquisition than expected, on each Life Skill they have covered. From here, the teacher can unlock self-directed modules to enable individual students – or a whole group – to work on improving and building up a specific Life Skill. 

In the example below, a student has reported a low outcome on life skill 13: Conflict Management. Here a teacher may decide to give the student a learning boost by asking them to take a self-directed learning module to support development in this specific skill.

Selecting a My Guided Tour self-directed learning module is simple. Teachers have access to our full curriculum – the Archipelago – which is a library of Life Skill focused activities, and can unlock any modules for an individual student or a whole group, with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Within each self-directed learning module, students are provided with a single 'signpost' as a take-away tip to focus on. They are asked to practise applying this tip in a social, learning or work situation – then report back on how they got on, and think of further changes to their thinking, communication or behaviour they could make in future.

As with all Persona Life Skills learning modules, teachers are able to see students' activity and progress, as well as any answers they have input and their interactive activity results. At the end of each module, students are asked to self report on how well equipped they feel to improve at the targeted Life Skill, providing teachers with evidence of individual and group learning outcomes.

Persona Education offers free trials of its Persona Life Skills online learning platform for secondary schools and colleges interested in developing their students’ social-emotional life skills, to boost wellbeing and employability. To request a live demo of the platform please get in touch – we would love to talk to you!

About the author: Dr Leila Khouja Walker has been working in the education sector for 25 years. An ex-teacher and pastoral deputy head, she is now a respected edtech and pedagogy thought leader, leading development of the personality insights life skills e-learning app Persona Life Skills, at the Bristol based edtech company Persona Education Ltd. www.persona-life.com