Cape Town - An app designed to help students track their goals and realisations in order to achieve their desired academic targets has now been made available in all of South Africa’s 11 official languages to make it more accessible to a broader pool of students.
The app, called WOOP (wish, outcome, obstacle, plan), was originally created as a workbook and introduced into UCT’s residence system in 2018, said Residence Life Division’s senior co-ordinator for learning and innovation, Sean Abrahams.
Abrahams did some research that showed students’ hopes and outcomes had no link – and that led him to reach out about the need for the WOOP app.
“When we did the research, there was no evidence to suggest a relationship between one’s hope level and one’s academic performance. There was no link between that feeling of hopefulness and their actual … performance where it mattered the most in terms of getting their degrees,” he said.
Abrahams has worked closely with Professor Gabriele Oettingen, the app’s creator. They have found that students, primarily first-years adjusting to life at university, tended to set goals of an extremely high standard, and when they came up against obstacles they were not ready for, they’d give up.
“WOOP is based on Oettingen’s research, on how people think about the future and how this affects their cognition, emotion and behaviour. The app has helped people of all ages and nationalities reach their health, career and personal goals,” said Abrahams.
He said the app had helped students set more realistic and attainable goals for themselves. Having the app available in all languages made it more easily accessible.
“The WOOP app has ended up with thousands of students using the app and participating in challenges to use it for their academic goals. WOOP plays a key role in giving students a free mental model for thousands to overcome daily obstacles,” Abrahams continued
The app has only just been released in 11 official languages and will be officially launched this week, available to all university students in the country.