Here it is, the Student Mental Wellbeing Embeddedness Model! This embeddedness model is based on staff and student interviews, focus group and survey data that aimed to identify the different aspects of learning where mental wellbeing should be embedded, and the different characteristics of what constitute 'embeddedness'. The final output is a prompt model for institutions or practitioners, based on maturity or readiness models, by which they can self-evaluate how embedded wellbeing practice is and identify any gaps that need attention. Feel free to download the excel file below and use it in your institutions. If you have any questions, or would like to share how you used it, do get in touch via [email protected]
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It's taken 7 months (lockdown review processes are SLOW!) but the first paper from the Wellbeing in Distance Learning project is published! This paper covers the first stage of the study (interviews) and the taxonomy that was developed from the findings. It's called ‘Mental health in distance learning: a taxonomy of barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing,’ and is published in Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning (DOI: 10.1080/02680513.2021.1899907.) A PDF of the paper is at the bottom of this post, in case you can't access Open Learning. Hope you enjoy it! AbstractStudent mental health is a critical issue in higher education. It is understood that higher education can act to trigger or exacerbate mental health difficulties, but research in this area has focused primarily on campus environments, identifying stressors such as halls of residence. Since distance learning students disclose mental health issues at a higher rate than campus students, and completion and progression gaps are on a par with the sector, it is critical that the barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing in distance learning are understood. This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing and study success that students experienced in distance learning. 15 distance learning students and 5 tutors were interviewed using narrative enquiry; students told their own stories and tutors told stories of students they had supported. Barriers and enablers were identified across different aspects of study, skills-development and the distance learning environment, and are presented in a taxonomy of barriers and enablers that suggest a range of implications for distance learning educators and policy developers.
Some topics can be distressing for students, or can trigger unwelcome emotions, memories or mental health issues. For students with mental health issues or who have experienced trauma, this can be a crucial accessibility issue. Triggers are personal; different people can be triggered in different ways. The most common triggers relate to trauma, such as sexual or physical abuse, a suicide attempt or other painful memories. Therefore, when modules refer to content that is likely to be be distressing or triggering for students, we need to ensure we signpost this and support students to study these topics in a way that won't compromise their wellbeing. Different topics require a different response. In the OU, we are therefore trialling an approach that involves classifying content into three categories: A, B or C. Category A topics require the most signposting and support, as these can trigger harmful behaviours in students. Category A topics include:
Category B topics may trigger flashbacks of experienced trauma. Category B topics include (but are not limited to):
Category C topics may be painful or distressing to the student. Category C topics include (but are not limited to):
The different categories require a differentiated approach to adjustments, content warnings and support. The OU model is presented in the table below: Guidance for academics and module teams includes example text that they can adapt and use. For example:
The following is example text that may be adapted and included in week 1 or a module guide. Some topics we are covering in this module may be distressing. They may touch on difficult experiences that you have come into contact with (like [examples]) or deal with subjects which may be distressing for you (e.g. [examples]). We’d suggest that before reading on, you check whether any weeks of the module might be challenging for you. This might involve looking over the titles for each week of the module and noticing whether any emotions come up for you and what they are. Do you feel anxious or angry at the thought of certain topics, for example? If so, we recommend downloading the guidance on Studying Emotive Topics in the Downloads section, and speaking to your tutor to ensure they are able to support you. The following is example text that may be adapted and included in at the beginning of a session containing distressing content. Please be aware, this week/session/activity discusses [topic.] If you are likely to find this distressing, please consider carefully how you might want to engage with this. You can find suggestions in the Studying Emotive Topics guidance, in the Downloads page. You might also want to check with your tutor at this point to see how they may be able to support you. or In this activity/session, you'll be asked to [activity]. If you are concerned this might adversely affect your mental health, you might like to skip this activity or engage with it only very lightly. Please speak to your tutor if you have any questions. We have also created template practical guidance on emotional resilience that academics can adapt for their module and use with students. This covers topics such as:
We're also seeking feedback on this approach as part of the trial, so do get in touch or comment below if you have any idea, questions or comments! This has been a long time coming! I've had the results of my survey since November, and I've *finally* finished all the stats, number crunching and analysis of the open comments. There will be a proper paper on this, but in the meantime I've had a go at doing an infographic-type overview of the headlines. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Get in touch - [email protected] or @KateMarburg on Twitter.
Lovely Friday afternoon news! Our new and updated microcredential Teacher Development: Embedding Mental Health in the Curriculum is officially live and open for enrolment. This course is one of the case studies arising from the project when participants identified that training for educators was sorely needed. We launched it as an undergrad module earlier in the year and it was incredibly popular - learners' comments included:
The vignettes used in this study were made with the Our Journey tool. This free online platform can be used by students to log on their study journeys, recognise their achievements reflect on how they overcame challenges and have grown as a result. Educators can support students to do this, and can also encourage them to share their journeys with their institutions to facilitate greater understanding of diverse students' challenges and experiences.
This internal report for the OU's Quality Enhancement and Innovation portfolio gives an overview of the first stage of the project. It explores some of the key considerations for practice that can be adopted in module and tuition design, and highlights good practice happening elsewhere in the sector.
As part of this project, we're currently piloting 7 innovative projects with a view to embedding wellbeing in distance learning:
Narratives shared by students and tutors in interviews have been turned into 10 anonymous vignettes. Feel free to use these for staff training, to inform course design, or any other way that suits you. These are image files, but if you would like PDF versions, or Word versions that are accessible for screen-reader users (or if you have any other queries) email [email protected]. In this project, 16 students and 5 tutors shared their experiences of barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing in learning that students have experienced. These were analysed using Thematic Analysis and were mapped to different areas of their educational experience. It became clear that many of the education-related barriers to wellbeing were actually the same as the enablers for wellbeing, meaning that a factor can be a barrier or an enabler, depending how it is designed and how the person experiences it. For example, social media can support wellbeing for some people but can undermine wellbeing for others; study skills can be a barrier if students don't have the skills they need, but can be an enabler once they're developed; and curriculum, tuition and assessment can all be enablers if designed and delivered well, accompanied with the right level of support.
These barriers and enablers can be represented as a taxonomy. This shows three central categories for both barriers and enablers: environmental, study-related and skills-related. Each of these is broken down into sub-categories and then themes of barriers and enablers. Barriers can be mapped across the taxonomy to corresponding enablers, and there are relationships between adjacent barriers and enablers. |
AuthorKate Lister is a lecturer in inclusive education at the Open University, UK, and is an associate for Advance HE. Categories
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