Thread by @DrJoannaT

Hurrah, watching @NLCrawfordTas's presentation at #UniSTARS on her NCSEHE equity fellowship on mental wellbeing. It feels like it's real time but I know it's a recording. Pretty cool experience overall.

Nicole starts off by defining a model of mental wellbeing based on WHO's definition and a self-determination approach which sees it as a complex interaction.

She says that 47.7% of students in her survey considered withdrawing or deferring their studies.

Specific experiences differed greatly but lots of common ground - feeling alone, isolated, juggling/balancing act, but also the teaching & learning support and social aspects were important to students.

Nicole now introducing the guidelines for staff - she'll cover a few today

Nicole's full report for @NCSEHE here: ncsehe.edu.au/publications/n…

Now her team are sharing student experiences - 1st is about how online lecture config and availability determines student decisions to stay enrolled in units.

@NCSEHE Simple things can help online students feel like they are included and belong - saying hi/welcoming online students in the lecture, and repeating the questions from the room so that online students could hear them. #UniSTARs

Another thing to consider is about scheduling times for online tutorials that work with students (and casual staff)'s likely family/carer commitments - e.g. don't start on the dot at 9 to ensure school drop off is avoided

Important for regional and remote students to contextualise the learning to situations they could relate to. Group work another challenge - ?different stage of life, ?time differences - but can be useful to support interaction & communication with peers.

Nicole went back to see if anyone had said that groupwork was a positive experience. She couldn't - but noted a lot of students did speak of peer support and peer groups that were helpful in their studies. So how do we create conditions that support this?

Another recommendation is about embedding universal design for learning - which asks us to consider who we are including/excluding when designing learning.

Hmm, I think I haven't quite worked out how to operate the platform, the session finished before I managed to finish viewing the video! 🤣 but now in the live Q&A which is lovely!

David Eckstein sums it up saying that we can do such simple things and we don't need to be an expert to help - even just asking if people are okay, and knowing who to refer students do (e.g. counselling services) can make a difference.

#UniSTARS

Whew, this Events Air platform is pretty snazzy - hosts @kjnnelson & @rachaelfield68 now popped up to say hi, giving us tips on how to navigate the sessions, wrap up, and close this first day.