Postcard Confessions: Deepening Understanding of Students via their Hopes and Dreams

Project leader(s): James Warren Georgy Holden

Theme: Supporting students
Project faculties: STEM
Status: Archived
Date: April 2022 to August 2026

This project set out to better understand the aspirations and hopes of students coming to level 1 study. The aims were to support the development and refreshing of design modules and sensitise staff at all levels to a holistic view of students experience as well as communicating that experience to a wider academic audience. The project analysed more than 580 postcards that were sent by students to the U101 (Design thinking) module team over a period of several years. The sending of postcards was optional but students were asked to write down three hopes for the year ahead. The information was largely anonymous and was occasionally accompanied by drawing. All of the information from the postcards was coded and subject to thematic analysis to identify common themes. Having identified key themes, representative statements, in the students’ own words, were chosen to be used to generate a set of ‘Design Wishes Tarot’ cards. There are 78 cards in the pack and images for the cards were created using a mix of AI generation and graphic design. The cards exist both physically and digitally (available online at: https://softhook.github.io/Tarot/).

The cards have been developed for use by Associate Lecturers and academic colleagues as a tool that can be used to consider student experience when creating module materials. The online site randomly selects cards to present as “Card of the Day”, and for spreads of cards such as “Past, present and future” or “Year” enabling different combinations of cards to be explored in various ways.

Although the cards can be used by individuals a workshop was developed to explore the themes raised in the cards collectively. The Tarot workshop has been run with associate lecturers on Design modules and members of the Design Group. The playful nature of the cards and the use of random selection has been found to provoke discussions around the life experiences and hopes that students bring to their studies beyond their academic aspirations, which helps staff to understand and be sensitive to the context of study. Some Als suggested that the pack might also be used with students as a focus for discussion about their own hopes and concerns.

The tool, though developed initially for use with Design staff has been seen to have applicability across disciplines, and the workshop that has been developed around it could be rolled out across the university for any staff concerned with, or interested in student experience.