Enhancing the student experience & doing more with less

‘Ketso’ means action

Learning - What works well? Think of a time when you learned something and it went really well. What helped you to learn? Write a few ideas on leaves, one idea per leaf.

Aims of the workshop develop ideas for enhancing the student experience consider ideas for the future - how do we do more with less? learn from each other – share ideas and practice experience and learn about a participatory toolkit that has been used in teaching and learning in Universities across the UK

Ketso is a hands-on kit for creative groupwork

Women didn’t speak in mixed gender groups

‘Ketso’ means action in Lesotho, where it was invented in 1995

Ketso was used in Southern Africa to help communities change this...

…to this: sustainable living

Developed in ESRC funded PhD research at the University of Manchester

… working to develop a vision for a sustainable North Manchester

Local enthusiasm from the plans developed moved a former landfill site from 30 th ….

... to first on the list. The site received £1.7 million of Newlands funding.

Reaction from North Manchester Resident “Because a lot of people are like me and they are not good at speaking if there are more than two or three people around, but they have things to say. This is magnificent at getting people to participate, and very important”

Ketso has been used in contexts ranging from Tesco (180 staff)

… to engaging with stakeholders of all ages and backgrounds in health related issues

… to community development and engagement in Jordan, Rwanda, South Africa & Scotland

… including a community planning conference with over 400 people in Renfrewshire

… to teaching and learning at all levels

Overview of this workshop Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities Future possibilities, how could we do things differently? Challenges Solutions

Outcomes from workshops can be captured

…and written up for a report

Introducing the kit Everyone takes a pen and some leaves

Always use the ‘magic pens’ Ketso rinses clean in water after use!

Write or draw one idea per leaf, write so others can read

Each stage will be introduced with the new leaf colour and the bell

You will have about 10 minutes for each stage in total

Bell to move to next stage – first ring person talking has a moment to finish what saying

Think then share - time on your OWN to develop ideas before sharing them

Enhancing the student experience What works well? What in what we already do is effective?

Now unfold the felt

Take it in turns to read out your ideas – one person reads one idea at a time…

… going around the circle. Place leaves on the felt as you read them out

Discuss the ideas after they are all on the felt

Point leaves at branches

Branches provide themes, some blanks

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities – just one or two leaves each, what big ideas / new things are on the horizon? This is an opportunity to really think through the bigger picture

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities – just one or two leaves each, what big ideas / new things are on the horizon? This is an opportunity to really think through the bigger picture

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities Table swap – what is important, & why? Any comments or questions?

You can move ideas around

You can add more ideas as you go along, simply write them on leaves

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities Future possibilities - how could we do things differently? How to make the most of the opportunities, and continue to learn from the things that are already working?

You can think ‘outside of the box’

Cluster similar ideas

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities Future possibilities Challenges and problems – what are the key barriers to enhancing the student experience?

Enhancing the student experience What works well? Opportunities Future possibilities Challenges Solutions

Ketso grid for action plan

Eight takeaways – creative engagement Stakeholders have the solutions – you never know where creative ideas will come from Everyone has a voice - give everyone a way to make an input at the same time Individual and group time – think then share - give people time on their own to develop ideas before sharing Building a shared picture – encourage participants to make connections and patterns from their ideas

Eight takeaways – creative engagement Stakeholders have the solutions Everyone has a voice Individual and group time Building a shared picture Activity based - give an activity for each stage Start with the positive - ask what is going well? what works? End with solutions not problems - give some time to develop solutions to problems Lead into action - remember takeaway messages & action points, what happens next?

Make productive use of people’s time

Give everyone a voice – commitment

Harness creativity of people all levels

Independent customer survey in 2012

Each bit of the kit helps lead you through running a workshop

Eight takeaways – how Ketso helps Stakeholders have the solutions - felt is there to capture ideas Everyone has a voice – everyone has a pen and leaves Individual and group time –giving out the different coloured leaves ‘re-sets’ the process Building a shared picture – you can move the leaves around, branches give (some) structure

Eight takeaways – how Ketso helps Stakeholders have the solutions Everyone has a voice Individual and group time Building a shared picture Activity-led – legend – decide what you want to ask and assign a bit of kit to that stage Start with the positive – colours have an underlying metaphor – what is the soil we have to grow ideas in? End with solutions not problems – green shoots from the rain (grey of the clouds) Lead into action – you have Ketso planners and a Ketso grid and action cards for your own next step

Launched as a social business in 2009

Social mission - to transform ways of working together, promoting creativity and learning worldwide

Business model – helping people run good workshops by selling & renting kits…

…. & providing free open source resources: workshop plans, slideshows, training videos

Create job opportunities for disadvantaged people in manufacture

The kits are assembled in a sheltered workshop in the UK

Customers include: Public Sector: Scottish National Government Merseycare NHS Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency Cumbria County Council, South Lakes District Council Voluntary Sector: The Equality Network GroundWork Schumacher Institute The IONA Community The Big Life Company Private Sector: Tesco United Utilities

Customer survey - Types of uses

University customers include: Cambridge Cardiff Durham Edinburgh Glasgow Lancaster Leeds Metropolitan Liverpool London South Bank Manchester Newcastle Portsmouth Pretoria Salford Sheffield Sussex

Customer survey - Types of uses

Student Feedback

Students engage with each other

Ideas being heard In past experiences of group work, I have often taken a backseat in group discussion as other more outspoken characters tend to hold the discussion... I enjoyed Ketso as I felt it gave everyone a higher sense of equality. Undergraduate first year student

Students learn from each other

Developing ideas One of the things I was amazed at was that we had so many ideas, as a group we were bouncing ideas off each other taking one member’s idea and developing it. This made me very optimistic about the future of the module and strengthened my positive attitude, which has continued throughout the module. Undergraduate second year student

See ideas develop

Time management I knew we were pushed for time but actually stopping and reviewing the situation by analysing what we had to do and by when really made myself and the group a lot more effective and efficient in our decisions. Undergraduate second year student

Supports effective groupwork Problems, issues, and solutions arose which potentially wouldn’t have entered my mind, whilst experiencing our group connect and energise each other. I have to say, I was impressed. Undergraduate second year student

Allows you to give feedback

Allows peers to give feedback One area of the workshop I found extremely beneficial was moving around to view the other groups’ emerging Ketsos. It provided independent observations with regard to our Ketso maps, providing comments. Viewing the development of others’ ideas enabled me to change my perceptions. Postgraduate student

International students can engage The Ketso is particularly useful for me to communicate with members. My English level is low… It makes me difficult to actively participate group projects. Last semester I could not insist my opinion… However, with the great tool covering many different kinds of group meetings I was able to clearly suggest my thought on a meeting.

Used at many different stages – expectations, project planning, review & revision

Embedded inclusive education

Supports students with dyslexia “ I like the fact it is so visual, you can really see your ideas and the links between them and other people’s ideas… I like the way you can move the ideas around, it makes it practical and is more inviting than a list.”

Widening participation and access

Skills development (e.g. enterprise education - Durham, Sussex, Cambridge, Birmingham, Newcastle, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Surrey, Austen Texas)

Data gathering – e.g. focus groups

…for later analysis.

Public engagement with research

Returning knowledge to Peru “... It was good because we have all given ideas.” “... we are used to being dictated too, so it is nice to be able to give our ideas.” “... we are not used to thinking about such things, we are normally told what to do.” C.Furlong & J.Tippett, 2011

Feedback Best thing about workshop Areas for improvement Ideas about how you might use Ketso

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