Blended Personal Development Programme

This project aimed to establish a reflective-practice based personal development approach that could be scaled across ETH and other educational institutions. The motivation behind the project was to enhance the effectiveness of learning for students and faculty members. This included both improved learning outcomes as well as a reduction in costs for lecturers. To achieve this, a digital solution was developed to support blended learning and promote the development of key «future competencies» as identified by ETH Talent, including critical thinking, self-reflection, coaching, and the practical application of knowledge in professional settings.

The motivation for this project stemmed from recognizing the significance of self-reflection in the learning process. Self-reflection involves examining one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and it plays a crucial role in facilitating learning and personal growth. Our chair had integrated several reflection techniques into courses in the past, such as learning diaries and coaching, but they were very expensive and not scalable to larger populations. By measuring self-reflection in educational courses, the project sought to accomplish several objectives.

Firstly, the project aimed to enhance learning experiences by encouraging students to understand course material in relation to their personal experiences. Educators could assess the effectiveness of their teaching methods and make necessary adjustments to better support student learning.

Secondly, the project aimed to foster critical thinking skills in students. Self-reflection requires students to analyze their thought processes and consider various perspectives, thereby developing essential critical thinking abilities relevant to both academia and professional life.

Another motivation for the project was to promote personal growth among students. Self-reflection assists students in identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and, next to self-assessment, educators could provide feedback to help students build on their strengths and improve areas where they might need support.

Furthermore, the project aimed to facilitate effective goal-setting. Self-reflection helps students identify their goals and develop action plans to achieve them. Through measuring self-reflection, educators could offer guidance to students in setting realistic goals and devising effective strategies to reach those goals.

Overall, the project was centered around introducing reflective practices to improve personal development in a scalable manner across ETH and beyond. By focusing on self-reflection and other future competencies, the project aimed to create a more efficient and impactful learning environment for the benefit of both students and faculty members.

To implement the project into teaching, we initially evaluated the needs and several internal tools such as Eduflow and Edwords. As these tools were not sufficiently meeting the needs of the project, we then partnered with a startup called Rflect, co-founded by Niels Rot and Dr. Claude Siegenthaler, who shared a vision of promoting personal development through reflection in education.

Based on our needs analysis, our project management team worked closely with Rflect to develop an initial version (V1) of the platform, which included essential features like a user-friendly interface for both students and teachers, smooth login processes, easy setup for professors, and the ability for students to share their reflection questions either publicly or privately. The interface resembled a chat format, facilitating multiple feedback loops. This version underwent testing in 2022 with two courses, the emba X1 and the master course Innovation Leadership Seminar. ETH has signed a Memorandem of Understanding with Rflect that allows ETH to use the tool for free for a significant number of courses going forward.

After gathering valuable feedback from professors and students, Rflect worked on an updated version (V2) that offered significant enhancements to the platform’s user experience. The improvements included:
Improved user experience
Scheduling and setting deadlines for reflection topics
Managing multiple courses with one login
Lecturer’s flexibility in choosing sharing preferences
Lecturer’s ability to reply to a student’s reflection (once)
Revoking scheduled invitations before sending
Automatic re-sending of unaccepted invitations after 48 hours
Streamlined sign-in process
In the subsequent testing phase, we further validated the updated version with emba X2, ILS, and ElS courses, and the new CAS Climate Innovation by Prof. Gruber and Carole Rapo. We received positive and constructive feedback that encouraged us to continue making improvements.

Throughout the testing process, the project team and Rflect provided full support to professors and students, helping with setup and addressing any questions or issues that arose.

Word about the ability to now integrate reflection and personal development into courses and programs spread around ETH, and the following faculty indicated strong interest to start using the tool as well:
Marlene Mader, D-USYS,
Emily Elsner, D-MTEC,
Kimon Schneider & Fritz Brugger, D-GESS
Alexandra Dias, D-USYS
Tobias Luthe, D-BAUG
Prof. Stefano Brusoni, School of Continuing Education

Overall, the implementation of the project in teaching, resulted in a scalable and user-friendly platform that facilitates personal development through reflection, contributing positively to the future of education and ETH’s reputation.

The main goal of developing an approach for scalable personal development, and gauging interest from others within ETH to use this have been achieved. Also, it has already improved teaching in those courses where we have used it. The outcome of the Innovedum project is essentially a pedestal which can now be used to help students and lecturers. The tool and method will have to be developed further, and this is normal.
Comparing the tool to other self-reflection measurement tools, Rflect exhibits several strengths, such as being highly intuitive and easy to use compared to competitors like Edwords and Eduflow. It also boasts a straightforward setup process, making it accessible to a wide range of users. Nonetheless, there are limitations, including the current restriction to one feedback loop, which may limit the back-and-forth exchange of feedback. Additionally, the lack of integration with popular learning management systems like Canvas or Moodle may pose challenges for some users.

To investigate the impact of the project on student learning, two brief surveys were conducted, revealing that students highly value self-reflection. They find it crucial for structuring their thoughts, particularly during challenging situations or leadership roles. However, finding sufficient time for regular self-reflection remains a challenge for students.

In settings where self-reflection was mandatory, the feedback from students was more positive as they appreciated ‘having to make time for something useful which often gets forgotten due to lack of time’. Feedback was most positive where it was used holistically at program level rather than at course level (the CAS). In settings where it was not mandatory, around 40% of students answered more than 50% of the reflection questions

The lessons learned from this project are that personal development can be made scalable with a tech tool, that it has benefit for the learners and saves time for the lecturers. However, due to the cyclical nature and lag time of course and program design, one needs to be early involved in planning processes. We recommend that for every program redesign process, it is evaluated whether integrating personal development is an option. Potentially we can make faculty at ETH aware by writing a blog post about the Innovedum project. Many of the skills learned by students have a strong overlap with the ETH talent framework, and can be used to both better integrate the framework into teaching, but eventually also to track student progress on these dimensions.