Platform feature: Intuitive student learning journey
The Persona Life Skills online learning platform now includes an intuitive student learning journey, right on the homepage (sign-in required). This makes guiding students through our recommended, scaffolded social-emotional skills program easy, even for non-specialist teachers.
31-Mar-22
By Dr Leila Khouja Walker, Chief Product Officer
In the Persona Life Skills social-emotional online learning platform, the homepage now features an intuitive student learning journey, through our recommended series of scaffolded learning units, building social-emotional skills for social, learning and workplace contexts.
If you already have a Persona Life Skills account, sign in to take a look.
It’s simple! When a student signs in, they will now see the new sequence of themed units, each containing a number of learning modules, typically three – one teacher-facilitated module and two self-directed. Students can now work through the recommended learning journey, either at their own pace, or following their teacher, without having to think about the best route through all the available modules. We’ve done the thinking for you!
The flexibility to choose any different order of learning modules is also available, either using the drop-down unit selector on the homepage, or our full library of modules in the Archipelago screens, where teachers can also unlock or lock modules for their group, or even for individual students.
There are two types of learning modules in Persona Life Skills:
1. Teacher-facilitated modules – called Islands – each focused on a teenager life challenge, such as preparing for exams, getting along with friends, or their first job.
2. Self-directed learning modules – called My Guided Tours – each focused on developing one of 22 social-emotional skills, such as stress management, empathy or critical thinking.
The homepage student learning journey includes 21 units with 64 modules – over 35 hours of learning – and will continue to grow as new units are released.
Foundational learning
The first three units comprise foundation modules introducing the concept of personality insights, and guiding students to begin developing a better understanding of themselves and other people, through the unique Persona personality insights framework, specially designed for young people.
We recommend all students complete Units 1-3 early in their use of Persona Life Skills, so they can put this learning about ‘self’ and ‘others’ to good use in future units – accelerating and improving their social-emotional life skills acquisition.
Life challenge units
Following on from the first three foundational modules, Unit 4 and beyond are themed around life challenges most young people are likely to encounter during their teenage years. Each unit contains a teacher-facilitated module exploring the life challenge, plus two self-directed learning modules to help build relevant social-emotional life skills.
For example, Unit 5: In 'The Unexpected' teacher-facilitated module, students explore how they might think, communicate and behave when the unexpected happens. They also complete self-directed modules about Being Adaptable and Stress Management, which help them develop key life skills for dealing with unplanned events in their lives.
Monitoring progress
As you can see in the screenshot above, to help students see how they are progressing in their new learning journey, and which modules they can start, continue or review, each module is marked with an indicator:
- New – red star: Ready to start
- In progress – amber wheel: Continue exploring
- Completed – green tick: Available to review
As a teacher you will also want to see how your group of students – and individual students – are progressing. This is easily done by visiting the Groups screen, where you can choose to view all students' progress. You can also drill down to view an individual student's details, and a summary of their unique mix of personality styles in their Persona Insights.
The teacher can also very easily review everything their students have inputted in each module:
Sign in, get started!
So – there really is nothing to it, when it comes to getting your students started on Persona Life Skills. Sign in, and off they go!
Teachers with a Free account can play through all units in the homepage learning journey. Many units are also free for students to explore. A Paid Subscription is required to make all modules and features available to students.
Persona Education offers free access to its Persona Life Skills e-learning platform for secondary schools and colleges interested in developing their students’ social-emotional life skills, to boost wellbeing and employability. To find out more 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 based social-emotional learning platform Persona Life Skills, at the Bristol based edtech company Persona Education Ltd. www.persona-life.com
