Objectives

The course is meant to improve students’ soft skills in self-management by applying principles of self-development to day-to-day life. Most courses taught at the university level focus on learning contents. This course focuses the students and their progress in developing academic and personal achievements. More than the content, students will learn to relate to the topics, apply them in their life, and draw practical benefits from the content of the class material and discussions.

Combining theory, personal experience, and self-reflection the course provides the tools to undertake personal growth. Each lesson a topic related to how to develop personal skills will be introduced; students will discuss strategies that research has shown to be advantageous for goal achievement and explore techniques and exercises that enhance well-being.

Contents

The class is designed as a laboratory in which students learn to define their personal/academic objectives, evaluate their progress in achieving them, and hopefully have some fun. To this purpose, in addition to the analysis and discussion of journal articles, class will have individual and group hands-on activities.

The course will be taught in English.

References

There is no mandatory textbook. However, some readings will be given during the semester that will help understanding the topics taught to the students.

Pre-requisites

An interest for self-improvement, as well as the willingness to discover and work on the development of one's strenghs. Regular presence to the class is a requisite as the exercises done during the semester will be the basis for the writing of the assignements.

To facilitate group participation, the number of students allowed to take the course is 30 per semester. Students interested to take the course should send a motivation letter describing why they think this course is relevant to them to anely.bekbergenova@unil.ch and show up to the first course.

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

There is not final exam and the final grade will depend on:

1. Group presentation – 25% towards the final mark
2. 3 reflection papers – 25% towards the final mark
3. Final Paper regarding a personal development project – 50% towards the final mark

Retake

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

Students who fail the course will have to (re)submit the components of the class that earned a score below 4. The grade for the components above 4 will remain constant, while the grade for the components below 4 will be determined by the grade of the resubmitted components.