Tag: Praxis

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Student Perspectives of Associate Lecturer Support for Students who share Mental Health Difficulties

A Praxis funded Research, Scholarship and Innovation project led by Professor Joan Simons in HWSC (Health, Wellbeing and Social Care)

If you have a tutor there that is supporting you throughout your studies or that you know knows and understands your conditions or your mental health, that in itself is so helpful because you feel supported and you feel that, OK, they’re there, they understand, they get it.

 

 

Introduction

This blog post summarises a critical OU study led by Professor Joan Simons and funded by Praxis – WELS Centre for Scholarship and Innovation. It explores how Associate Lecturers (AL) at the Open University can provide practical support for students who share that they have mental health difficulties and thus help them succeed in their studies. This research is of particular importance because although there has been an increase in students with declared mental health issues over the past few years, they are the most likely to be unsuccessful in their studies or even drop out entirely. Therefore, focus group discussions were organised to identify ways to help these students continue and succeed in their studies.

Results

The results of this study showed ways that the OU can support their associate lecturers so they can, in turn, support the students they have with shared experiences of mental health issues. Firstly, students strongly preferred email as their primary communication method, as it allowed them to take the time needed to formulate their thoughts carefully. However, some noted the challenges of miscommunication via email. In contrast, phone calls were generally seen as stressful unless scheduled in advance. Secondly, some students struggled with Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA) and found that getting extra support from their tutors was hugely valuable. Finally, students had difficulties navigating the OU resources.

Discussion

Personalised communication was seen as essential in building solid tutor-student relationships. Students appreciated individualised, rather than generic, responses from tutors, which made them feel supported and valued. Timely responses and clear boundaries around tutor availability also helped alleviate anxiety. To help students who share they they have a mental health condition and based on the results of this study, Joan proposes the development of an intervention aimed at enhancing academic and pastoral support for students with shared mental health difficulties. This intervention would include regular check-ins, tutor video introductions, clear boundary-setting, and structured communication. The impact of these strategies will be assessed by tracking retention and attainment rates.

On the other hand, students also noted a significant variation in how well different tutors understood and supported mental health challenges. Some felt that a lack of understanding from their tutors hindered their progress, indicating a need for more standardised training. A warning light that students who are likely to experience mental health issues need extra support or a modification in the support they are receiving is if they are asking for repeated extensions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on the results of this study, Joan aims to implement various modifications to the support that students who share that they have experienced mental health issues receive. For example, comprehensive academic and pastoral support will be tailored to students with mental health difficulties. Interventions will include personalised check-ins and engaging video introductions that respect these students’ requests for precise boundary settings. Additionally, regular check-ins will be organised in time for the TMAs, and extra support will be provided if necessary. The effectiveness of future support will be rigorously assessed using questionnaires, focus group discussions with ALs and feedback sent to the OU. Additionally, participating students’ retention and attainment rates will be compared against their peers. By better understanding the needs and preferences of students who share they they have a mental health condition, the OU will be better equipped to help them fulfil their studies and continue to a successful and satisfying future.

We would love to hear about your experiences of mental health  (directly or in supporting others) and study in higher education. What more should the sector be doing.  Please send us a comment in the box below.

Thanks to Lesley Fearn for peer reviewing and helping to shape this blog post.

 

Dr Lesley June Fearn is a secondary school English teacher in southern Italy. She is also an affiliate researcher at the Open University’s (UK) Faculty of Well-being, Education, and Language Studies (WELS), where her research centres on linguistics and sociocultural theory. 

 

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What was the emotional impact of providing students with video feedback on their written assignments?

Photo by SHVETS production from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-woman-having-video-chat-via-laptop-in-library-7516347/

In this post, one of a series of Scholarship focussed blog posts, authors Ximena and Gerry talk about their recent research project exploring the emotional impact of  providing students with Video feedback on their written work. The OU – like so many other institutions – has its own quirky language and so I have editorialised to help someone who is unfamiliar with the OU to make sense of some of the highly specialised language OU colleagues use.

Written by:  Ximena Arias-Manzano Ximena.arias-manzano@open.ac.uk  & Gerry Howley Gerry.howley@open.ac.uk

Video feedback for TMAs : The emotional impact of hearing the tutor 

(TMA is an abbreviation for Tutor Marked Assessment, a formative assessment provided in response to students formal submission of course work, marked by their tutor rather than someone external to their course).

In the context of a distance learning University, this is feedback written by a tutor who had had little direct contact with a student on their course. 

The project focuses on tutors using video feedback for a range of assessments. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data are brought together to illustrate the beneficial effect that video feedback can have on accessibility, personalisation, engagement, and the tutor student relationship

 

Having this opportunity [to receive video feedback] brought a humanity to the feedback and made a huge difference in [my] circumstances. It did encourage me to ask questions more and definitely made me engage more with the module. I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

 

For the majority of students on the project, video feedback is shown to be a highly effective tool that improves accessibility, personalisation, engagement, and the tutor-student relationship. Most tutors found providing video feedback an efficient, enjoyable and beneficial alternative to written only feedback.

What was the project about?

This project was about providing an opportunity to a team of LAL   ALs (LAL refers to the school of Languages and Linguistics, ALs refers to Associate Lecturers) to experiment with innovative ways of giving feedback on their students formally submitted written work. Exploring the use of screencast technology, ALs were able to develop their own style of feedback creating an interactive approach. The production of video feedback in a guided environment where ALs had the opportunity to be trained and to receive comments from their peers to continue improving the use of screencasts in a more effective way when correcting assignments. The emotional impact of hearing the tutor and receiving more personalised feedback has been the focus of this scholarship project. The reflection and feedback collected from tutors and their students will form the basis of our final report.

What were the findings?

From focus group participants/mentors…

Student questionnaire:

    • Students overwhelmingly welcomed the new approach to feedback
    • 77% of 81 students who responded to the feedback questionnaire stated they preferred video feedback to text-only feedback.
    • 91% felt video feedback helped them understand their weaknesses and strengths more than text-only.
    • 91% said video feedback made them feel they had a closer relationship with their tutor.
    • However, positive outcomes are shown to be dependent on the approach of the tutor. So, adequate training and monitoring will be important moving forward.

A key topic that came out of both student and tutor feedback relates to the isolation of teaching/studying online. Using video feedback felt highly personalised and made them feel more connected to their tutor/students.

Student comments:

    • ‘It felt like I was sat in a one-to-one session with my tutor’.
    • ‘I felt a part of a community of students and a university. Not like studying alone far away from everyone else going through text on the screen’.
    • ‘It made me feel more encouraged and part of the community. Distance learning can be very isolating at times and this personalised visual feedback helped with that.’

Tutor testimonials:

    • “My marking is more enjoyable now (less isolated) and I feel I am having a conversation with students”.
    • “All in all, the project really (re) opened up my eyes to what can be achieved online without being a tech expert”.

Tutors reported on their feelings when preparing the feedback and appearing on a webcam, but also the positive feelings of easing their isolation.

Tutors found it a positive learning experience to develop alternative and innovative ways of giving feedback. After the initial hurdle with technology and trial and error period, they felt more confident, and some decided to use this way of giving feedback in all the modules they teach.

We learned that…

    • Tutors have seen the potential of video feedback for positive outcomes for their students, as well as helping them to feel closer to their students. This is something that has been missing over recent years due to organisational changes within the OU teaching structure as well as the disruption caused during COVID.
    • Students’ reactions to video feedback also demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of closing the gap in the student tutor relationship, which in turn can increase engagement and accessibility.
    • The enthusiasm we have seen from the ALs who took part in the project as well as module teams and tutors who have not yet been involved is testament to the potential of video feedback being used much more widely in the future. This is the primary focus of our next steps.

What next?

The project’s next steps are to create a group of champions from those who took part in the project. This team of champions will be trained as trainers to cascade down their knowledge and expertise to Associate Lecturers in LAL from 23J onwards.  (23J refers to  September 2023) We have already received interest from two Module Chairs re. using video feedback on their modules and we will be rolling out the training to their ALs (AL = Associate Lecturers) in time for 23J TMAs.

A long-term future plan would be to also expand the delivery of SD sessions to ALs university-wide.  The team of champions will also have the role of creating a “Guide to good practice” to be discriminated across the OU to form an integral part of the training for the use of video feedback in TMAs.