Assessment, life circumstances, curriculum and skills: Barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing in distance learning

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Kate Lister¹  Chris Douce²  Jane Seale³  Kyle Andrews³  Jo Buxton⁴ 

[1] Faculty of Learning and Teaching, Arden University, Coventry, United Kingdom;Faculty of STEM, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom;Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom;Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom;

关键词: mental health;    mental wellbeing;    students;    compassion;    participatory;    social model;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1076985

 received in 2022-10-22, accepted in 2023-01-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Student mental wellbeing is increasingly a priority for universities, and this is particularly critical in a distance learning context. Studies have found that studying, academic pressure, university culture and systems can affect students’ mental health. There are increasing calls for universities to take a compassionate, holistic approach to supporting student wellbeing, and identify the barriers that are created by university cultures, systems, pedagogies, curricula, tuition and assessment practices. This study aimed to identify barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing in distance learning, and students’ recommendations for changes to be made. Using a student survey (N = 584), we identified that assessment and life circumstances were the most significant barriers, while the greatest enablers were building study skills, the people in students’ lives, and curriculum and module content. The study revealed significant demographic differences in how students experience barriers and enablers, and how likely they feel they are to benefit from solutions. Students with disclosed mental health difficulties were consistently more likely to experience barriers than students without a disclosure, while enablers were experienced by all demographic groups. The study concludes that assessment should be prioritised as an area for action.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Lister, Andrews, Buxton, Douce and Seale.