Talent Lab 1

Main idea

Outline

The Talent Lab 1 course is organized in different study programmes, so the content and structure of this course can be slightly different depending on its context. It’s followed by Talent Lab 2 and 3 in the second and third year.

Main purpose

Talent Lab 1 helps first-year students grow on a personal and professional level. Students get to know themselves better, reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and work on the competencies they will need in their workplace.

Detailed description

Talent Lab 1 is the satellite or helicopter course from which first-year students explore the campus and workplace. During the lessons students are offered a safe environment in which their needs, questions and doubts are heard. It is very important that there is interaction between teachers and students, but also between students.

The focus of Talent Lab 1 is on the reflection process by Mittendorf et al. (2012), which consists out of three steps: an impactful experience, insight, and taking action.

Throughout this year students:

• get to know their study coach,
• learn about study methods,
• learn how to prepare for evaluations,
• explore their talents,
• learn how to conduct successful meetings,
• find out which Belbin Team Role they take on,
• work on their communication skills,
• take part in a project linked to their study programme (e.g., going to a secondary school as an ambassador).

Students can also propose additional topics.

Target group

Talent Lab 1 is a full year course for first-year students in different study programmes at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS).

Part/no part curriculum

Talent Lab 1 is part of the curriculum.

Goals

• Students recognize their own talents and opportunities for growth.
• They can set goals for themselves to further develop their talents and to grow in other areas.
• Students work towards their goals and keep track of their progress with a portfolio.
• They learn to critically reflect on their own progress and actions.
• The transition to higher education goes more smoothly.

Students involvement

Students are involved in the design of Talent Lab 1. They are given the chance to express needs, feedback and ideas in focus groups.

Inspiration and evidence

• The reflection process by Mittendorf et al. (2012)
• Belbin Team Role Inventory
• FIT-test

Success criteria

• In some study programmes, the students have the same study coach throughout the entire course.
• The integration of workplace learning.
• The study coaches are very motivated and involved. This allows them to gain students’ trust.
• It’s evidence based.
• There’s attention for vulnerable students. This course makes it possible to support them or to give them a referral.
• There’s a lot of communication between students and the study coaches.
• The content of this course is flexible, which offers lecturers the chance to meet specific needs of students (e.g., address racism in the classroom, organize check-ins during COVID lockdowns).

Points of attention

• It’s not always easy to help students reflect.
• Absenteeism due to students not understanding the importance of the course
• In some study programmes, students have to make too many (unnecessary) assignments.
• It would be beneficial to organize more meetings about Talent Lab 1 with the study coaches who organize it in the different study programmes.
• It might be beneficial to screen the course on gender inclusivity.
• The Canvas pages for this course can be quite chaotic, which can be a problem for students who are on the autism spectrum.

Effectiveness

Students have assignments and take an exam at the end of the course.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

Evaluation

• Talent Lab 1 is evaluated anonymously in every study programme with an online form on Canvas.
• Talent Lab 1 is evaluated with students during focus groups.
• There’s no formal, general evaluation of Talent Lab 1 across all study programmes, but the study coaches can go to the interviewee with feedback and questions.

Adjustments

• In the past, students could choose from six subjects to work on throughout the year. Each of these six groups would then prepare a presentation for the rest of the class on their topic. Students often chose to organize games, causing the content of the course to fade into the background. This meant that the study coach had to step in to teach the class in a more traditional way. The concept was adapted due to this issue.
• Students had to make too many assignments for this course. This was changed in some study programmes.
• There were adjustments made to make this initiative more inclusive.

Communication

Advertising this initiative is not necessary, because it’s part of the curriculum.

Timing

Talent Lab 1 is a full year course for first-year students. Class takes place every other week and takes two hours. Sometimes these two hours are split up over two groups of students.

Resources

It’s important to have study coaches/lecturers who are motivated and involved in the students.

Extra information

• Youtube video about Talent Lab
• Student Growth Journey (pdf)

Transferability

We think it is quite easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

This initiative has successfully been adopted in different study programmes at AUAS over time. The content has to be adjusted to appeal to the specific target group, but the idea behind Talent Lab 1 is quite easily transferable.

Universal Design

The organizers tried to design Talent Lab 1 based on the principles of universal design. It’s as accessible as possible, but there are certainly opportunities for growth.