Research and data as the basis for enhanced student well-being

By Tina Ellehuus Larsen, tila@sdu.dk, 4/4/2022

The project contains three tracks: The Study Club, teaching task forces and communication. The three tracks have been developed on the basis of current research on factors affecting student well-being, experiences from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen, as well as a number of extensive reports available on Danish students’ well-being.

The basis for the well-being project is that in 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science distributed ‘well-being funds’ with the purpose of backing projects designed to ‘test different approaches to enhancing student well-being and gathering knowledge about the impact of projects’. At SDU, it was decided that the Study Environment Surveys (SES) should form the basis for the projects at SDU. At NAT, the SES show that students thrive really well at SDU, but some of the students face challenges in a number of areas, such as dealing with stress in their day-to-day lives, loneliness and expectations that are hard to live up to. At NAT, the focus was placed on the undergraduate courses of study, more specifically the second semester, in which students are no longer closely followed in their course of study.

The project was launched in the autumn of 2020 with well-being sampling among the new students, who filled out questionnaires and recorded video diaries about their first few months as students. After a hiatus, the project started up again in the autumn of 2021, focusing on collecting research and reports on the factors affecting student well-being. In January 2022, two out of three initiatives were then launched – one with students as a focal point and one with the lecturers as actors.

Sara Thagaard Winther in the Faculty Administration is coordinating the efforts of the well-being project. She explains that most of the autumn and winter of last year was spent collecting research data.

– We wanted to find as much knowledge and research on well-being as possible so that we could cobble the initiatives of the well-being project together in the best way possible. At the same time, we entered into a dialogue with the faculty staff who are in touch with our students, as they know a lot about the concerns of NAT students. Thanks to this, our new study club is well underway, and we have a teaching task force where BMB is gathering the first experiences in this area, Sara Thagaard Winther says.

Study Club

The Study Club is an online offering for all students admitted in 2021 and is thus available to approximately 500 students. The club gives students the opportunity to reflect on and thus normalise some of the thoughts and concerns that may arise about their course of study and life on the whole. For example, students can participate in polls where they can see what their fellow students have answered, watch videos or read about the theme.

The themes are being filled out by the Science Faculty Administration and the  first themes have been procrastination, marks, group work, student life on a budget and making the most of your time. Future themes will address themes such as exam nervousness, loneliness and stress, among other things. Students are given access to a new theme every 14 days in itslearning.

Camilla Gundlach is a student counsellor at NAT and she has high expectations for the Study Club, as she believes it allows each student to see what their fellow students are thinking and feeling. Thus, the implicit can be made very explicit.

– As a student counsellor, I often hear the phrase ‘it’s much easier for everyone else’ or ‘I'm the only one who finds it difficult’. This indicates that a lot of students are experiencing the same emotions and thoughts, and if you’re convinced you’re the only one, you tend to feel lonely. With the Study Club, it may be possible to change the culture among students from a culture of perfection to a culture where it’s okay to ask questions and speak up when you’re having difficulties. At least I hope so, Camilla Gundlach says.

The Study Club is an initiative which is trying to make a difference in the students’ lives by offering the right actions at the right time. The students can easily access the club whenever they want, and they can choose the entire package or pick and choose the parts they find most relevant in each module.

– Well-being in one’s education programme and while studying at the university must be incorporated into one’s day-to-day life, and the process should be a long-term effort. At the end of the day, it’s the continuous effort that works, not standalone events. It’s about helping to create a culture where students aren’t afraid of using each other for opening up about their doubts and things they are finding difficult, Camilla Gundlach concludes.

What’s clever about the Study Club is also that it yields a concrete output that can be recycled year after year and fine-tuned in relation to experiences and changing conditions in courses of study or year groups of young people.

Teaching task forces

Two lecturers from BMB have agreed to being part of a teaching task force. The task force allows lecturers to select and test those interventions for enhanced well-being that make the most sense for them and their teaching. The task force meets three times during the semester before completing and evaluating the work.

Postdoc Eva Bang Harvald chose to focus on the personal story which is often behind a biomedical scientist’s choice of study, while Associate Professor Kim Ravnskjær chose to work with feedback in his teaching.

– As a lecturer, I am very concerned with how to best learn together with my students. I believe that if we can meet each other even more as people with a common goal, and if we can show a sincere interest in each other, it will motivate not only the students but also myself as a lecturer. That’s why I’d like to bring myself more into play as a lecturer and try out how we can shatter our sometimes fairly systemic approach to teaching and exams, Kim Ravnskjær says.

According to Kim Ravnskjær, lessons at BMB often include multiple choice questions when evaluating students at exams, but this approach can often create a gap between the lecturer and the students.

– This spring, I have introduced an additional lesson where we review the questions from the sub-exams with students and delve into the difficult questions together. In doing so, I hope to become more accessible as a lecturer and make the students more seen in terms of things that matter to them. That way, I hope that we can address the students’ experience of being a mere number in the large SDU system, and that it enhances their learning and well-being, Kim Ravnskjær concludes.

Communication

The administrative track in the project on communications is currently undergoing a fledgling start-up process. The project will examine the information students have access to before and during their start of study, and how we can reduce the gap between students’ expectations of being a student at NAT and the real everyday life they encounter.

Vice Dean Poul Nielsen is excited about the three tracks of the well-being project, and he hopes it can help enhance student well-being and thus ultimately make them want to complete their studies.

– The Faculty’s education strategy states that one of the goals is to reduce dropout rates, and I believe the well-being project contributes greatly to that. I like the idea that online interventions can make a difference to the way that students think about themselves and their course of study, and that it may help them to thrive better while studying.

As Vice Dean, but also as a lecturer, he is highly committed to ensuring that students thrive.

– I hope that our teaching task forces may help to draw attention to the fact that lecturers actually play a major role in students’ well-being. I’m very much looking forward to the results of the project when it finishes this summer, Poul Nielsen says.