About the project
Student mental health and wellbeing is a critical issue in higher education today. Research shows students experiencing issues with mental health issues have differential degree outcomes, including persistent attainment, progression and employment gaps. In the Open University, our students disclosing mental health issues have a module completion gap of 16 percentage points, and although the support we offer students is exemplary, we need to do more to embed wellbeing proactively in learning and teaching to avoid losing or disadvantaging our students.
In the Mental Wellbeing in the Curriculum collaborative project, Open University staff and students have come together to:
In the Mental Wellbeing in the Curriculum collaborative project, Open University staff and students have come together to:
- identify barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing in distance learning
- identify solutions or interventions that might address these barriers
- work together to pilot these in their context.
Project stages
Stage 1: Interviews (2019)
16 students told their stories, and 5 tutors told student stories and their perceptions of barriers and enablers. These stories were turned into vignettes and the analysis is represented in a taxonomy. These are available on the Resources page.
Stage 2: Focus group events (2019-20)
116 staff and students took part in 3 focus group events. They investigated data (using vignettes), identified barriers, and worked together to create ideas for projects and interventions to address them.
Stage 3: Project pilots (2020-21)
7 ideas for projects and interventions are being piloted and evaluated
Stage 4: Survey (2020)
A survey was completed by 584 students in October 2020. This sought data on barriers, enablers and solutions at scale.
16 students told their stories, and 5 tutors told student stories and their perceptions of barriers and enablers. These stories were turned into vignettes and the analysis is represented in a taxonomy. These are available on the Resources page.
Stage 2: Focus group events (2019-20)
116 staff and students took part in 3 focus group events. They investigated data (using vignettes), identified barriers, and worked together to create ideas for projects and interventions to address them.
Stage 3: Project pilots (2020-21)
7 ideas for projects and interventions are being piloted and evaluated
Stage 4: Survey (2020)
A survey was completed by 584 students in October 2020. This sought data on barriers, enablers and solutions at scale.
Pilot projects
The focus groups resulted in 7 projects being piloted, each with a view to embedding wellbeing in distance learning curricula, systems and environments:
For updates or more information, contact [email protected]
- Wellbeing in Learning Design: a model for embedding wellbeing in learning design and module production
- ‘My Wellbeing' pages: discipline-specific wellbeing guidance for students on subject sites
- Training educators: a micro-credential on embedding wellbeing in the curriculum
- Inclusive tutorials: A self assessment tool for tutors, auditing wellbeing in tutorial materials
- DSA support: a professional development course for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) needs assessors to better support OU students
- Distressing content support: Emotional resilience guides to accompany trigger warnings to help students study distressing topics
- Careers: a wellbeing strategy for the Careers team
For updates or more information, contact [email protected]