Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

The University of Jyväskylä has launched Student Life, a large-scale program approaching students’ well-being from multiple angles. This program has four developmental areas, and within it a model to support successful study outcomes is being developed. Jyväskylä has been built a model of its own kind, evolving, gradually mutating and dynamic. The aims are to develop new models of studying that focus on individual learning methods and technologies that support study.
Going to university is an important stage in life, a time when a lot of changes occur. Young people move to a new location, start their studies and take responsibility for their own life. The student community can play an important role in ensuring that new students adapt quickly to student life and make progress in their studies. For the students it means making choices that are significant to them, keeping the motivation to study and maintaining a healthy balance while being at university. For the university it means that students make smooth progress in their studies and are satisfied because they have achieved what they wanted from their time here. To keep their studies on track, students need personal guidance as well as peer support. The programme also involves an exceptionally large number of organizations from outside the university. Students have an active life outside the campus. So the programme has participation from the City of Jyväskylä, Church, Student Accommodation Foundation and many other organizations closely involved with the university students.
 
One of the four development areas within the Student Life programme, INNO, concerns innovative learning environments and technological solutions that support personal study planning and studying independently of time and place. The university has new software, e-mail has been reformed. Social media becomes to students everyday life and study tool. Students can use their mobile phone or any other smart terminal to check are on offer, register for courses and update their study plans. They can get messages to on their phones, for example that a lecture hall has changes, and save and share videos. With the tools students can make their study plans, register for exams, see all the registered academic credits, etc. They can create hobby groups and mailing lists for those groups.
 
Google provides new services that support collaborative document editing. Students and other staff can work on the same documents no matter where they are located. The University operates an electronic eExam service allowing students to do exams at the time they choose in a university examination room. One goal is to create places for students to work in groups and exchange of ideas, and personal remote examination is under consideration. It will bring flexibility for studying. Accessibility and learning disabilities are taking into account when they do this reform.
 
ePortfolio, which is designed to control the progress, will be integrated into the control system and curriculum work. The control site of university will be combined and reformed user-oriented, taking into account in particular learning disabilities. ePortfolio should help students to improve their opportunities in the labor market, to show their skills. With this portfolio you can the evidence of your expertise can be maintained and transported electronically, for example to the Employment and Economic Development Offices.
 
Exploratory learning environment and learning space are long-term projects which require more time. Virtual learning environments will make everyday life and studying more flexible and easier, give new possibilities. They are learning spaces specialized to new educational methods, tools, and materials to study innovative ways.
 
The second of the four development areas within the Student Life programme, VENE, is to develop peer support, advice and guidance services for students. The university has trained personal study counselors to deal with problems. Peer groups in the social media offer easily accessible support for those who prefer to discuss personal issues anonymously. Information and support are also available from the online counseling service, which can help students leaving for international exchanges, for example, or entering working life. At the same time different online communities are actively built to bring together students, staff and alumni in an informal way.
 
In spring 2012 the University of Jyväskylä launched its Students Ambassadour scheme. Ambassadours from different subject areas, who are students themselves, tell young people faced with the choice of study places. The university provides a lot of information about its activities, but these students approach things from the young persons’ point of view. Ambassadors have made visits to upper secondary schools in Central Finland to answer questions that pupils may have regarding studying and student life at the University of Jyväskylä. They have got positive feedback. The ambassadors try to divide into small groups during different visits, so it’s easier to approach them to ask them things. They also answer school students’ questions on Facebook and via e-mail, they write blogs, and work with study counselors. Some ambassadors are working more with international students who may need help in finding interesting study modules from the educational supply of the University of Jyväskylä.
 
The next area of program, HYVO, aims to maintain and promote students' well-being, which means the development of guidance and counseling. The University has trained personal welfare advisors. They are staff members and deal with problems, are available to help students on everyday life. Their mission is to promote and support the students’ life management skills, alongside their work. The counselors give advice in problems related to time and everyday management, relationship issues, self-esteem and tensioning. The discussions are confidential.
 
Those advisors work in cooperation with personal study counselors, who help students to make their personal study plans. It’s a new type of low-threshold approach, the aim of which is to support the students' well-being. The purpose is to gather data on the student's well-being to a single address. It seems that students do not find the information easily, because it is divided among a number of different entities to web pages.
 
The name of the fourth area within the Student Life programme is Student's growth into a versatile expert, OSAAJAKSI. The main target is to support different kind of activities, as well as to develop co-curriculum and develop a sense of community as part of the student's daily life. Students can show their skills and competence acquired in inclusion with other people and organization, outside their studies. The goal for students is to record all those activities during studies, which may be useful in work life.
 
Students usually develop their own skills outside the university in associations, organizations and third sector activities, the University supports the development of their skills and expertise through small groups and counseling. As a result for students is a portfolio, which promotes their employability and career planning. Students don’t get credits, but they receive a separate certificate from the University. The goal is that those activities outsides studies can be identified and recognized.