For educators

We want to make Designing Your Life available to a wider audience, so all DYL courses developed at Leiden University are open source. You are free to use the materials and adapt them to your own educational setting.

Organising Designing Your Life education: how does it work?

A Designing Your Life series begins with hiring and training peer facilitators. Preferably, peer facilitators are empathetic students who have followed a DYL course before, giving them personal affinity with the materials. An online environment (i.e. Brightspace) is prepared with class materials, including quizzes for each week.  

There are 7 or 10 sessions in total, depending on the study load you can assign to the course. Each session takes two hours and consists of short plenary introductions to new concepts and skills, followed by group activities where students actively participate in discussing concepts or trying out new skills. Peer facilitators guide smaller groups, and the lecturer leads the sessions. Students complete personal assignments at home.  

At the end of the course, students compile a final portfolio consisting of all activities and reflections conducted throughout the course. The portfolio can be graded on a pass/fail basis, or with a numerical grade. There is a rubric available for both versions.  

Get access & join the community of practice

Class slides (including speaker notes), lesson plans and workbook are all available so you are ready to go! 

Fill in this form and get access to all the regular Designing Your Life teaching materials as well as tips & tricks on how to get started with the course. Please let us know about your experiences and give us your feedback!  

In the form, you can also indicate whether you want to join our community of practice. A few times per year, we gather (online) with several Designing Your Life teachers to share our learnings and keep improving the DYL framework.