Title: Our Journey: Map your study journey. What were the challenges and achievements? Section title: Add events to your journey My name is Angela and this is my student journey. (Adds event type to the first card: registration) I decided to register for a module with the Open University. It was my first module and I wasn't sure where I would go from there. But I thought well, I'll give it a try. (writes this in the card description) I must admit I was really nervous at the start. (adds nervous emotion to the card). Section title: Include memorable experiences It was maths, my first module, so it was quite hard in some ways. But it was also strangely confidence boosting. It was interesting and we did stupid things like singing songs about mathmatics in the bar. (adds Confidence boost event and description of singing songs about maths) It was really good to have other people who I could talk to about such a strange subject. (adds note saying 'Good to have people to talk to') Because it is not a thing you talk about down the pub with people very often. In fact most conversations go "ohh I'm terrible at maths". So it was really nice to be proud of being good at it. (selects Proud emotion) Section title: What were the challenges? I was quite nervous about doing an exam in mathematics. (selects Assessment card) And in fact when I had done maths before I had a very bad exam experience. So I was quite nervous about it (selects nervous emotion) But I got used to it and I started studying for the exam and I got through and I did well enough. (selects achievement event on next card) Not brilliant but well enough. So that is how it started and I got through my first module hooray! It was hard. But it was worth it. (adds proud emotion and description saying the above) Section title: What helped you along the way? Very early on after going to the first tutorial, we decided to set up a study group. (adds peer support event and description) I met with some other people. that was really helpful because it didn't feel like anyone was judging you when you were meeting other people. So there was a woman who was Finnish and English was her second language and she was learning Spanish and I thought and well she can do it and she is willing to try. Section title: reflect on the journey (slowly scrolls down the journey cards) Looking back I can see there were some real high points for me. If I had to say one particular one, it would be working with other students. I think peer support is absolutely essential. It is one of those things that really helps build your confidence. Just having a laugh with someone can take away such a lot of tension. And feeling you are in a safe space where people aren't going to judge you. And listening to the voice in my head that said, yeah it is time to go back, or it is time to stop now, you need a break. That was useful as well. It was a struggle when the material was hard or I wasn't confident about the subject. But actually I felt it was when your personal life got in the way that it was the biggest struggle because it was really hard to get past that. And to remember that you could ask for help. Asking for help wasn't easy but once you got past that. Everybody was there to help you. The tutor, other students, the student support people all really helped me when I got stuck.