Plymouth Award

Handbook: 2012/13

Plymouth Award Handbook 2011-12

DW11 Page 2 of 15

Introduction to the Plymouth award 3

Step One: Registration & Payment 6

Step Two: Create an online Plan 7

Step Three: Carry out 80 hours of activity 8

Step Four: Reflective Portfolio 11

Step Five: 1-2-1 Discussion 13

Celebration 13

Frequently Asked Questions 14

Key Contacts

You can contact a member of the team by email or phone on the details below. You can also

ask advice from staff in gateway, or arrange a tutorial with one of our team. Drop-in sessions

will be arranged throughout the year for you to attend if you have any queries.

Web: www.plymouth.ac.uk/plymouthaward

Email: [email protected]

Dr David Croot

Plymouth Award Director

[email protected]

Award Administrator

Karen Turvey

[email protected] 01752 587900

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/plymouthaward

mailto:[email protected]


DW11 Page 3 of 15

Introduction to the Plymouth award

The Plymouth Award is designed to recognise and celebrate student achievements

outside the curriculum. Many University of Plymouth students already make

significant contributions to the life of the University and the communities in which

they live and work. The Plymouth Award is one way of recognising the value that we

place on these contributions and the learning and personal growth that students gain

from these activities.

What are the benefits?

Personal development

Time at university is precious and the opportunities to spend this time productively

are almost endless. Not only do students have unparalleled access to formal

educational opportunities, but also to activities that can significantly enhance their

personal development and growth.

Citizens of the future

We expect our graduates to become tomorrow’s leaders. The Plymouth Award gives

students to chance to engage in a wide range of activities and begin to build their

profile as future citizens.

Employability

Over 250,000 students graduate each year and employers and postgraduate

admissions tutors are bombarded with over 70 applications for every graduate place.

Students who can demonstrate that they have achieved things beyond their degree

whilst at University will have an edge in the struggle to secure a worthwhile job or

place on a postgraduate course. Employers demand not only a good degree, but

evidence that graduates have “life-wide” experience on which they can build a

successful career.

Although the Award does not carry academic credits, it will appear as a separate

item on the Higher Education Achievement Report from academic year 2011-12.

Students who successfully complete the Award will also receive a separate Award

Certificate at their graduation.


DW11 Page 4 of 15

Principles of the Award

Inclusion

The Plymouth Award is open to any student registered at the University..

Time scale

Undergraduate students can register at any time up until 31st January of their final

year of study. Activities must be completed with sufficient time to write a reflective

portfolio which will be due in end of April of their final year.

Postgraduate students can register at any time up until 31st January of their final year

of study. Activities must be completed with sufficient time to write a reflective

portfolio which will be due in on August 30th of their final year.

Through-life and Life-wide Learning

We have designed the Award to encourage students to take a positive approach to

life whilst at the University. We believe very strongly in “life-wide” experiential

learning, so our Award reflects this philosophy. We ask students who register for the

Award to complete a minimum of 20 hours of activities in three of the five following

categories. Every student will need to demonstrate at least 80 hours activity in total.

Personal health and well-being

Working life

Volunteering

Cultural and social awareness

Supporting the University community


DW11 Page 5 of 15

Your Journey as an Award Student

The diagram below shows the journey you will take from registering to undertake the Award

through to successful completion.

STEP ONE STEP TWO STEP THREE STEP FOUR STEP FIVE

Step ONE: Registration

All students who wish to undertake the Award will need to register. This can be completed online at www.plymouth.ac.uk/plymouthaward. Partner College students and new fee paying students are not required to pay the £25 so please ignore this if it doesn’t apply to you. Following your registration, full details of the award will be sent electronically, and placed on TULIP. Step Two: Creating an online plan

Planning is an important part of the philosophy of the Plymouth Award. You’ll need to give some thought to how you are going to achieve the minimum requirements of the Award and undertake 80 hours of activity across three of the five categories (see step three for more details about the activities and categories).

Plymouth Award

Registration

www.plymouth.ac.uk/pl

ymouthaward

Receive an email

and follow the link

Construct an

action plan.

Collate all your

reflections and

record of hours

Submit reflective

portfolio to

plymouthaward@ply

mouth.ac.uk

Carry out 80 hours

of activity within 3

of the 5 categories.

Begin reflecting on

the activities and

developing a

portfolio as you are

doing the activity

Complete the

reflective portfolio

and reflective

account.

Successful

completion of

Plymouth Award.

Certificate

awarded at

graduation

ceremony.





DW11 Page 6 of 15

The plan will ask you to consider which categories you will be undertaking activities within, how

you will do this, and in what time scale. The plan will be completed using a simple template on

TULIP.

How to create your plan using TULIP:

1. Sign in to the student portal using your normal University username and password

2. Enter the Plymouth Award module site

a. For undergraduate students this will appear as PLYM001

3. On the right hand-side, under the surveys heading, select ‘Action Plan’

4. Complete the survey, and select submit

Your action plan is now complete, and has been submitted. This will automatically be submitted to

the Plymouth Award team, however you will still be able to view your answers by entering the

survey again. These will be stored until the end of the academic year. You can now begin to

undertake your planned activities, following the instructions in the next section of this handbook.

Retrospectively counting hours of activity:

Students who are retrospectively counting their hours still need to complete a plan. There is an

option on the template to tick if you are completing retrospectively.

Step Three: Carry out 80 hours of activity

The Plymouth Award is about learning from a wide range of extra-curricular activities. You’ll need

to engage in a range of activities to make the most of this learning, therefore we ask students to

engage in at least 3 of the five categories below:

Cultural & Social Awareness

Personal Health & Wellbeing

Supporting the University Community

Volunteering

Working Life

Students must complete a minimum of 20 hours within each of their chosen categories, plus an

additional 20 hours of activity across any of the categories. This means you will complete a

minimum of 80 hours of activity to complete the Award. By doing this, your breadth and depth of

activity significantly improves you learning, and this will show in job applications and interviews.


DW11 Page 7 of 15

Example:

Working Life Volunteering Supporting the University

Community

Working for Tesco (4 hours per week for

10 weeks)

St Johns Ambulance (1 hour per month for 5 months)

School Governor (1 hour per month for 10 months)

UPSU Beach Clean (5 hours)

Student Ambassador (6 hours at 4 open days)

40 hours 20 hours 24 hours

=84 hours completed

The following lists detail the activities which are already approved by the Award Management

team. There is no requirement for you to prove your hours once you have submitted your

portfolio the level of reflection will demonstrate how much you engaged with each activity. If you

want to undertake an activity which is not listed, please email the details to

[email protected]. We will then let you know whether this can be counted as an

approved activity.

Retrospective Counting

You may count activities that you have already undertaken providing that you completed them

while you were a student at the University of Plymouth, and you did not gain academic credit as a

result of these hours (e.g. work-based learning module on your course).


Plymouth Award Student Handbook 2011-12

DW11 Page 8 of 15

Approved Activities:

Cultural & Social

Awareness

Personal Health &

Wellbeing

Supporting the

University Community

Volunteering Working Life

Committee member for

a sports club or society

with UPSU

Organising a

social/cultural event

with the University

Working in the

Chaplaincy

Hall warden or

resident assistant with

UPP

Journalist or radio

presenter at UPSU

Citizens Advice

Bureau

Weight management

programme with

Recreation

Personal fitness

programme

Exercise classes with

Recreation

Participation with

Health & Wellbeing

week at the University

Regular participation in

planned sporting

activities through

Recreation or UPSU

Welcome week

assistant

Fresher Angel

Course Representative

Student parliament

with UPSU

Student Ambassador

Scheme

All activities organised

through the UPSU

Volunteer Office

Charity fundraiser

Duke of Edinburgh

Scheme

University Officer

Training

Mentor programmes at

the University or in

schools

St John’s Ambulance

Citizens Advice

Bureau

School Governor

Part time work (paid or

voluntary)

SU Sabbatical Officer

Student internship

Camp America,

BUNAC or CCUSA

FLUX or XING

Attendance at careers

fairs

Business Ideas

Challenge

Students in Free

Enterprise (SIFE)

CV Clinics at gateway

Student Associate

Scheme

PLEASE NOTE:

If you would like to undertake an activity that is not listed, please email the details to [email protected]. We will then let you

know whether this can be counted as an approved activity.

Still not sure what activities to do?

Check www.gradsouthwest.com for a full list of current opportunities...


http://www.gradsouthwest.com/


KT12 Page 9 of 15

Undertaking the Activities

Once you have decided how you will complete the required number of hours of activity, you

can begin undertaking them. While you are doing this, you will be encouraged to begin

noting your thoughts and feelings about the activities in the form of ‘patches’. A patch is a

short piece of reflection in the form of a diary, Pebblepad entry, a video, photos, audio

description or any way which is meaningful to you. In the patches start thinking about:

Was the activity enjoyable?

Did it present you with a challenge?

What did you learn from this activity?

Your patches will then be drawn together into a patchwork and will form part of your final

reflective portfolio.

You can take as long as you need to complete the activities, providing you leave yourself

enough time to construct your reflective portfolio ready for the relevant hand-in date:

Undergraduate: April of your final year

Postgraduate: August 30th of your final year

This means that if you register as a first year, you have until the end of your course to

complete, whereas a final year student will only have that one year in which to undertake all

aspects of the Award. Masters students will only have the one year of their course to

complete all the elements. If you complete before you finish your degree, you are entitled to

put the Award on your CV and job applications, however, you will not receive your certificate

until your graduation ceremony.

‘Activity Tracker’ is a tool developed by the Plymouth Award team to help you monitor the

number of hours of activity you undertake. Although you do not have to use this as part of

the scheme, you may find it useful in ensuring you have achieved the minimum requirements

for each category. Activity Tracker is available on the PLYM001 TULIP sites.


KT12 Page 10 of 15

Step Four: Reflective Portfolio

Reflection is an integral part of many different learning cycles which should be part of being

a professional, so encouraging you to consciously reflect is part of our strategy of

encouraging professional behaviours. More than that, how you reflect and the depth of

reflection is important (not just recording activity, but analysing, synthesising, looking for

patterns that are meaningful to you, recognising your strengths, weaknesses, what gives you

confidence/self belief, what your values are, etc). Your Award reflective portfolio is an

opportunity to critically reflect on your extra-curricular activities and express that learning.

Your portfolio will consist of two main parts:

A collection of patches created while undertaking activities

A final reflective report (between 1500 and 2500 words)

When combined, the series of patches from your activities, and your final reflective report

effectively produce your patchwork of experiences. The final report acts as the proverbial

‘stitching’ of your patchwork, by bringing together all of your experiences into one critical

reflection of your learning.

During your time on the scheme, you will be provided with resources on ‘how to reflect’,

which will go into more detail about the skill of reflecting in your experience, and on your

experience. You then have some time to go and develop your report, which will be

completed in Microsoft Word or e-Portfolio, and submitted electronically by the relevant

hand-in date:

Undergraduate: April of your final year

Postgraduate: August 30th of your final year

A template for the final report can be seen on the next page.

Summary of key facts about the reflection:

Two elements (The patches you produced earlier, and the final reflective report)

The report will be 1500-2500 words, completed in word and submitted electronically

Due 3pm end of April for undergraduates, and 30th August for postgraduates


KT12 Page 11 of 15

Template: Section A: Description This is a factual description of what you did in each of the three categories you chose. Please refer back to your plan. Did you stick with your planned activities or did you change your plans in one or more categories? If you changed your plans explain why. This should be a relatively brief factual description.

Section B: Analysis. A brief separate section on each category.

Skills development: how to do something. Description: Did you learn or further develop any of the following skills:

intellectual skills (thinking critically and analytically, making judgements),

key skills (numeracy, literacy, use of ICT, learning how to learn),

information management skills (locating and using information, evaluating information, using information management systems),

social skills (meeting people, sharing, team working, remembering names, introducing others, showing an interest in the concerns of others),

emotional skills (recognising the feelings of others, managing (intense) feelings, channelling energy into productive outcomes),

communication skills (writing, speaking, listening),

physical skills (running, dancing, manipulation, making something).

Critical evaluation: Do you want to continue to improve these skills and become more expert? Can you see ways of applying these skills in other areas of your life either now or in the future? Are you now aware of new skills that you now want to acquire?

Section C: Attitudes and values. A brief separate section on each category, can be

combined with section B.)

Did engaging in your activities change any of the following (for better or worse!)? This section is all about your feelings and perceptions. For example: • Your self-esteem, your confidence in specific situations or more generally • Your opinions or attitudes towards other people/activities. (Did you for example meet

someone from a totally different background; if so how did that encounter change you? Did you challenge yourself to do something which you were unsure about? Did you plan to improve in an area in which you already had experience?)

• Your attitudes towards any organisation within which your activities were based. This might for example be an SU society, the University, a sports club, an employer.(You might think about/reflect on the organisation or the values it holds)

• Are there key /critical incidents or experiences that brought about changes in your perceptions, your behaviours? (Describe the setting/context, the players, your pre-incident views/opinions, how these changed and why). You might for example have put yourself into a situation which you thought might be very challenging, but in the end on reflection you coped with it and truth-be-told you actually enjoyed it!

• Reasons for actions or personal viewpoints • Empathy, capacity for tolerance (or lack of these) Section D: Enjoyment, inspiration, creativity. (Maybe just one or two of your chosen

activities, but include all three if you want to do so)

This section invites you to comment on what you enjoyed, what you may have found surprising (about situations, about yourself), whether the experience led to more creative thinking, innovative ways of doing things, or may be being more open-minded about how you


KT12 Page 12 of 15

approach situations. Maybe particular activities inspired you to do something else, something differently…..

Section E: Action, behaviours, progression into the future

Did your engagement in the Plymouth Award activities you chose to include change you? If so how? How are you going to build on this experience into the future? Would you encourage others to become involved in these activities? If so, why and how? If not, why not? 1-2-1 discussion Following the submission date, a member of the Plymouth Award team will review your complete reflective portfolio. You will then be invited to a 1-2-1 session with your reviewer to discuss what you learnt from this experience. Your reviewer will tell you if you have completed the Award, or if you need to make any developments to your portfolio.

***

How to complete your reflection in e-Portfolio

One method of completing your reflection is through e-Portfolio. This system keeps all your

thoughts and achievements (patches) securely in one place, and allows you to bring them all

together for the purpose of creating the final portfolio. To do this, follow the steps below:

Record thoughts for each category:

1. Sign into e-Portfolio, and select ‘create new’, and scroll to ‘thought’.

2. Select ‘Reflective journal’ on the first screen and give your ‘thought’ a meaningful title.

3. Add a description of the activities you undertook

4. Now you can add your reflection.

What you write here doesn’t need to be extensive – just some notes about the

activities you undertook – it will help in your reflection later!

5. Select the ‘hours, points reminders’ button at the bottom to add the number of hours you

have spent on this activity.

6. You can now view this asset and it will be saved to your asset store. You can also tag

these thoughts to make them easier to find. You can create new tags for the different

categories you have chosen to work on.

Note: These do not need to be shared with the Award team.

Then pull it all together into a portfolio as follows:

1. Sign in to e-Portfolio using your normal University username and password.

2. Turn on ‘Activity Log’ option by:

a. Go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘My Settings’

b. Select the ‘Preferences’ tab


KT12 Page 13 of 15

c. On the second row from the bottom, ‘activity log asset type’ is shown. Turn this

setting and save.

d. You’ll need to log out of e-Portfolio and log back in for the changes to take effect.

3. Now go to the ‘Create New’ and select ‘More’ then select ‘Activity log’.

a. Give the log a sensible title and a brief description

b. Select a theme

c. Enter the number of hours you expected to achieve (minimum 80). Ignore the

question about points.

d. Enter your overall reflection using the section headings on the following pages.

e. You can now save and view this asset, where you can now attach the thoughts

and reflections you have already completed by selecting the ‘add an asset’ link.

f. You can also add any additional documents from your computer by selecting the

‘upload a new file’ option within the ‘add an asset’ link.

This is not evidence to prove your time on the Award, but other

documents such as certificates, press cuttings, or documents you

have worked on that will support your reflective writing in the portfolio.

g. You will now see that this is totalling the hours you added to your thoughts – this

is what we will use to check you have completed your 80 hours across the

categories.

4. Once you have added all the assets you wish to attach, close the activity log and share

with ‘Plymouth Award’ through e-Portfolio in the same way you did with the plan.

Step Five: 1-2-1 discussion

Following the submission of your reflective portfolio, it will be reviewed by a member of our

team. Your reviewer will invite you to attend an optional 1-2-1 discussion to evaluate your

success on the Award.

Celebration

After you have completed all the steps outlined in the handbook, you have completed the

Award. Your certificate will be given out at your graduation ceremony, and details of your

activities and achievements will also be highlighted in your Higher Education Achievement

Report. Don’t forget to tell potential employers about the Award – it really will help you stand

out from the crowd.


KT12 Page 14 of 15

Frequently Asked Questions

If I do more than 20 hours in one category (e.g. Working Life), can I count the

additional hours towards another category (e.g. Volunteering)?

No – activities can only appear in one category. Most are flexible and you can choose

whether voluntary work goes into working life or volunteering, but you cannot use it in both.

Additional hours will however mean you are getting more experience, and deeper learning.

Can I do more than one activity in a category to make up my 20 hours?

Yes – you can undertake as many activities as you would like to in order to achieve your

minimum 20 hours. You should make reference to all your proposed activities in your plan.

Can I do 40 hours of one activity to make up the additional 20 hours needed after

completing the three categories?

Yes you can, although it is worth bearing in mind that you will need to show deeper learning

in your reflective portfolio because of the additional time you have spent on that activity.

Does the Award count towards my degree?

No, the Award does not carry any academic credit, however, it does reward your extra-

curricular learning which is equally as important to potential employers, and will appear on

your Higher Education Achievement Report at graduation.

When will I receive my Award?

You won’t receive your certificate until you graduate even if you complete the Award in your

first or second year. You will of course be entitled to put the successful completion of the

scheme on your CV and job applications.

How long does it take to complete the Award?

You are able to undertake the activities that contribute towards your Award throughout your

time at Plymouth. You are allowed to be registered on the scheme for the same duration as

your course, however, you need to remember to leave yourself enough time to write your

reflective portfolio which will be due in April of your final year. If you finish during your first or

second year, that’s fine, but you won’t receive your certificate until graduation.


KT12 Page 15 of 15

Do I need to create my own plan template?

No – we will provide you with a web link to an online template that you can complete.

Do I need to create a plan if I count all my hours retrospectively?

Yes – one of the options you can select on the plan template is retrospective counting, but

you still need to submit this to the Award team.

When will I find out what is expected from the reflective portfolio?

You will be invited to attend a session in February which will explain all the requirements of

the portfolio.

I don’t know how to use e-Portfolio (Pebblepad). Will I be taught this?

During the welcome sessions held throughout the year, we will introduce students to using e-

Portfolio. Further tutorials can be arranged on a 1-2-1 basis if this is required.

I just paid my fee, and the link to the TULIP site has not appeared

Once you have paid, the system will link you to the TULIP site (PLYM001). However, this

may take a couple of days, and a member of our team will email you to confirm when this

has happened.

I attended an introductory session before I signed up, do I need to attend the welcome

session?

Yes, the introductory session explained the benefits of the Award and the process you will

go through. The welcome session is only for students who have signed up and will introduce

students to the ‘logistics’ of the Award, and to using e-Portfolio.

Can I get an extension to the deadline for the reflective portfolio?

The only way you can get an extension to the deadline is to submit extenuating

circumstances, just the same as in the modules for your main programme.

Documents

Plymouth Award