How Can Instructors and TAs support Student Mental Health? – Kristin Brown

when-we-break-a-bone-vs-how-we-deal-with-a-mental-health-issueStudent mental health is an issue that is close to my heart. Outside of my PhD research and work at CTE, I am the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Stand Up to Stigma, a student-led mental health initiative on campus partnered with Counselling Services and Health Services. Our goal is to start (and continue) a conversation about mental health at UW. Last term, I created a CTE workshop regarding how TAs and instructors can support student mental health – this blog post provides some of the resources available to help students in distress and promote mental well-being in the classroom.

What’s the issue?

A recent survey conducted by the American College Health Association (2013) highlights the current issues Ontario post-secondary students are facing with respect to mental health. Within the past year:

  • 59.2% of students had felt academics were traumatic or very difficult to handle;
  • 57.9% had felt overwhelming anxiety;
  • 40.1% had felt so depressed that it was difficult to function;
  • 12.2% had been diagnosed or treated by a professional for anxiety;
  • 10.0% had been diagnosed or treated by a professional for depression; and,
  • 10.9% had seriously considered suicide.

The link between mental health and learning

Mental health problems are negatively associated with several learning outcomes, including lower GPAs and an increased chance of withdrawal from academic programs (Eisenberg et al., 2009; Hysenbegasi et al., 2005). Several sources have advocated for a campus-wide approach to mental health, which posits that all members of post-secondary institutions (e.g., administrators, faculty, and staff) should play a role in student mental health instead of counselling services only (Kitzrow, 2003).

What mental health support resources are available for UW students?

  • Counselling Services: individual and group counselling, workshops (e.g., stress management, mindfulness, coping skills), emergency situations
  • Health Services: medical doctors, psychiatric services, emergency situations
  • Accessibility Services: academic accommodation for students
  • Good2Talk (1-866-925-5454): free, confidential, and anonymous helpline for any post-secondary student in Ontario; available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
  • Here 24/7 (1-844-437-3247): connection to addiction, mental health, and crisis services at 12 agencies in Waterloo, Wellington, and Dufferin counties

How can faculty/staff support student mental health?

  • Queen’s University and Western University have excellent resources for staff and faculty that highlight common signs of distress, how to talk to a student in distress, and how to make referrals to support services.
  • The Council of Ontario Universities has developed a series of videos that explain the issue of mental health in the post-secondary population, how to support students in distress, and the role of the university community in supporting student mental health.

How can I incorporate mental well-being into my classroom?

  • Simon Fraser University: This evidence-based resource provides strategies and examples from Simon Fraser University faculty for how you can build well-being into your class.

References

Eisenberg, D., Golberstein, E., & Hunt, J. B. (2009). Mental health and academic success in college. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 9(1)

Hysenbegasi, A., Hass, S. L., & Rowland, C. R. (2005). The impact of depression on the academic productivity of university students. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 8(3), 145.

Kitzrow, M. A. (2003). The Mental Health Needs of Today’s College Students: Challenges and Recommendations. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice: 41(1): 167-181. doi: 10.2202/1949-6605.1310

Momentum: Learning in Residence Life – Cassidy Gagnon

10918530916_8438ecda3c_mDuring the second last weekend of January I attended the 35th Annual Residence Life Conference at the University of Guelph, in which dons from all over Ontario gathered together and learned (and danced) with other dons. Although I’m not currently a don (or RA) for the Winter term, I was a don the previous two terms living at Village 1 and UWP. During the Fall term, I was given the opportunity with my friends in Residence Life to present at the conference under the title “Walking on the Quiet Side”, a presentation aimed to help fellow dons and RAs learn what the difference between extroverts, introverts, and ambiverts was, and how to cater to introverts who have trouble feeling part of the residence community. I wasn’t quite sure what the conference was going to be about and how I would react to it since, ironically, I am an introvert and extroverts seem to love the energy of conferences. The three members of my presentation group had already gone to last year’s conference, in which they told me about how the process was going to work, which did relax me a little.
 
We arrived the Friday evening and was staying at the Delta hotel. During the night, I only received 3 hours of sleep (which, as I write this blog, is still affecting my sleep cycle). The next morning of the conference, we were guided to a big, old building somewhere on the Guelph campus. On the projector screen in the building was only one word: momentum, with the “o” in the shape of a fast forward button, which was the theme of the conference. According to the website, “momentum is the product of existing motion; it is a testament to the hard work, creativity, and vision that has gotten us all to where we are. And, reflective of the energy and excitement we all feel now, we feel it captures our joint enthusiasm for the future”.
 
The first speaker that day was the keynote, who focused on the effects of technology on society and how we must be careful with how it affects our lives with others. After that session, we were given the choice of going to 1 of 8 learning sessions out of 5 concurrent sessions: basically, we were allowed to see 5 different sessions during the day that focused on material from diversity, personal and professional development, student learning and development, leadership and mentoring, self-care and balance, community building and advising and supporting. Needless to say, there was a variety of choices for anyone who wanted to learn about something they were either interested in or in something that they think would benefit themselves or their students more.
 
Being one of the presenters, I was only allowed to go to 4 of the session, since I was presenting in the middle of the concurrent sessions. The sessions I attended included: “Illuminating the International Enigma” (focusing on learning of different cultures and creating a safe and diverse environment for students), “This is Our Moment” (focusing on dysfunctional teams and how to go forward with building strong team dynamics), “How to Talk so Residents Will Listen” (a language based session that focused on how to talk to residences during any situation), and “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” (a diversity session to identify privileged people and student leaders, and how these people can change residence communities, campus, and life beyond university).
 
At the end of each session, the delegates and judges were then asked to rate the presentation based on a number of criteria. The top 5 sessions out of the 40 would present again (unfortunately, ours did not make it, but oh well…). The last session I went to, “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”, was actually in the top 5, as well as “GROOVE Your Body-Esteem”, done by Waterloo’s own Reba Campbell, which focused on exploring body image challenges and using GROOVE dancing to improve body confidence. I decided to attend the session called “Man Up!”, since it seemed the most appealing, and I already saw the other session, and Reba holds GROOVE classes on campus, which I have already attended (and was quite enjoyable. Thanks Reba!). The “Man Up!” session turned out to be my favourite session of the entire conference. It focused on breaking down stigmas surrounding cis gendered masculinity in our society and identify solutions for changing our student’s lives. Being a cis gendered male, there were a lot of truths within the session that I never would have thought of. And not to be melodramatic, but it definitely changed my life for the better for listening to it, and I will definitely be apply the nuggets of information I learned from this session towards my future students and myself.
 
As Sunday came around, we learned that “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” had won for the best session, while Reba’s session was runner-up (which was very exciting). After the closing ceremonies and the last keynote speaker, we then departed for home.
 
I found that this entire weekend was filled with lots of great knowledge, and better, knowledge I could apply towards my future residents, the people I meet, and myself. And even residents have loads of opportunities to learn things in residence, from educational events held by their don to leadership events offered by residence, such as the annual AMPED conference. But overall, thinking about my current state of being and carrying on the theme of the conference, I hope that I can have the momentum to take my love of donning and learning and conserve it in the future.
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For more information about my time at the conference, or learning in residence in general, you can make a comment underneath and I will try my best to answer you.

Also, thank you to Kerry, Dillon and Ananya for being such great team members and allowing me to work on the project with them.

Rethinking Assessments of Student Learning — Donna Ellis

student collaborationAs I write this article, a number of you will have just finished marking your final exams.  Did your students learn what you wanted them to learn?  Did your exam and your other course assessments enable them to demonstrate and perhaps even further extend their learning?

Assessments of student learning are a critical part of courses.  Overall, they are the major driver of what students choose to do and focus on in a course.  But do our assessments require students to learn?  In his recent talk at uWaterloo, Eric Mazur from Harvard University would suggest that the answer is often no.  In his talk, “Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning,” he outlined various problems with our current approaches to assessment and some suggestions about how to make improvements.

He began by asking the audience to discuss the purposes of assessment.  We were to turn to a partner; mine was an undergraduate student.  Her initial response to his question was:  to pass our courses, get a degree, and get a job.  Upon further reflection, she also added: “to parrot back what the teacher says.”  Are any of these responses clearly about learning?  No, and that is one of the biggest problems from my perspective.  Conceiving of assessments as “obstacles along the road” to get to a desired end goal makes it hard to recognize that they can and should be part of the journey of learning.  Traditional, regurgitation-based tests do not tend to contribute to this journey.  However, many other types of assessments do contribute, such as assignments that enable students to practice skills learned in class with new applications, or group exams that require students to explain and defend their answers to their peers, or final projects that focus on analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  How can we reinforce the role of assessments in the learning process?

One way that Mazur outlined is to use authentic assessments.  He indicated that a lack of authenticity is a major problem in physics education.  He explained that when a physicist has a problem, they typically know the desired outcome but not the process needed to reach a solution.  However, in textbooks, the problem and the process are made apparent, with the outcome being the unknown.  This situation results in the students being given information that they would not automatically have in a real-world setting as well as miss many critical learning opportunities.  The call for authentic assessments also came from our 2014 Opportunities and New Directions (OND) conference speaker, John Bean, who connected this approach to writing assignments (see my May 2014 newsletter article for more details).  When we make our assessments more authentic, we make it more difficult for students to believe they can just parrot back what we said in class.  We also push them to continue learning.

Authenticity, though, can come with a price for students. Such tasks are often less predictable and can sometimes lead to failure.  But whether or not something is a “failure” depends on what is being assessed, which ties back to the intended learning outcomes connected to the assessment. For example, if your goal is to have students learn about team processes, then the assessment scheme would give credit for the development of those process skills at least as much as the actual end product.

If rethinking assessments of student learning is on your 2015 “to do” list, I have 3 concrete suggestions:

  1. Watch Mazur’s talk for more ideas (see URL below).
  2. Submit a proposal and attend our annual OND teaching and learning conference on April 30. This year’s theme is “Making Teaching and Learning Visible”, and assessments of learning play a large role in providing such clarity.
  3. Participate in this year’s Teaching Excellence Academy (TEA). This intensive course redesign event occurs April 22, 23, 24, and 27, and supports you in rethinking all elements of a course design, including the assessments of student learning. Contact your department chair or director for more information or let me know if you have questions; the call for nominations will go out in early February.

And, as always, let us know how we can help!

References:

Mazur, E. (Dec 11, 2014) Assessment: The silent killer of learning. Presentation delivered at the Department of Physics & Astronomy Teaching Retreat, University of Waterloo. Downloadable here.

Donna Ellis

Please engage with students after the beep — Josh Neufeld

When teaching a large second-year “Fundamentals of Microbiology” course with 800+ students each fall, connecting with individual students is an important, yet challenging, goal. In addition to in-class student engagement, email helps me make connections with students outside of class, assisting them with particularly difficult course concepts. That said, with hundreds of student emails received every term, typing responses can become time consuming and burdensome. This year, I discovered a simple technique that saved me a lot of time, provided increased student engagement on a personal level, and surprised students pleasantly. The technique? Voice mail.

In September 2014, when a long student email with five different questions arrived one day, I decided to pick up my phone to respond instead of typing. Because the University of Waterloo has a service that allows employees to have voice mails forwarded to our email accounts as a .wav file attachment, I simply dialed my own phone extension and left a message: “Hello Isabel…”. After answering her questions in under three minutes, the time limit of our answering service, an email arrived with my audio file.

I replied to Isabel and attached the file, simply stating “Hello Isabel, Please see attached. Let me know if you have additional questions. JDN”.

By replying to the email verbally through voice mail, I was able to answer all five of her questions with detail beyond what I would have written in an email. Isabel heard me talking to her, using her name, and responding in a friendly and helpful tone. A surprising additional benefit was efficiency for me: this process took approximately five minutes, from reading her questions to sending the voice mail reply.

Isabel’s response to this new form of communication? “It was actually a brilliant idea! At first, I was kind of worried it would be difficult to answer all those questions via an email; just cause you have to type it out and sometimes it makes less sense than in an actual conversation. However, when I received the audio message, it was clear and I think it’s easier to understand.”

From then on, when an email required thoughtful responses, when general student questions were best answered with a suggestion to review a podcast or videocast for more detail (i.e., we covered that topic in class), when questions moved beyond the scope of course material and required more in depth responses, when I needed to decline requests for exam accommodations, when students asked for career advice, voice mails have made my life easier in every case, saved me time, and left the recipient thrilled with the personal touch.

Student feedback on the voicemails has been 100% positive since I first used this technique in September. Feedback was sufficiently enthusiastic that I began using voice mails for responding to emails from colleagues and graduate students when I don’t have time to type a response, or when the tone of the conversation is important to convey correctly.

Drawbacks? One downside is poor email searchability. For me, this has been a minor issue; I’ve not yet needed to search for any of the dozens (hundreds?) of voice emails sent since September. File size is another drawback. A three-minute audio file (e.g., .wav, mp3, m4a) can range between 300 kb and 3 mb, depending on the method used to generate the file. These days though, emails with attachments are common. Voice mails certainly don’t exceed the size of a photo or journal article. It may also worry some to have voice audio files circulating on the internet. That said, sending an email to a student is similar in that ideas are out there for posting or sharing anyway.

And how will I will carry this practice forward in 2015? Now that I am overseas on a sabbatical, calling my University of Waterloo extension is no longer feasible. Instead, I’ve discovered an excellent alternative. Creating audio recordings with Vocaroo is effortless. Vocaroo is a website that can be used instantly, without membership or software installed. An advantage to Vocaroo is that audio files can be downloaded directly or, alternatively, a short url link is provided that can be sent to a recipient instead of an email attachment. It is even possible to upload an audio file to Vocaroo in order to share a link that allows the recipient to listen instantly. In this way, I uploaded an example audio recording sent to one of my 2014 students (“Jennifer”) who sent a six-question email, providing an example of how the approach can be used to respond to students. Additionally, here is a link to a video for educators explaining the features and functionality of Vocaroo in a step-by-step manner.

In summary, voice mails help increase student engagement outside of class and provide a personal touch for instructors wanting students to know that they are more than a number in their class. In the process, leaving a message after the beep saves a lot of time. I hope this simple practice helps you and your students as much as it did me and my Fundamentals of Microbiology class.

Note: to set up your university voice mail so that messages are emailed to you as .wav files, send a request to request@uwaterloo.ca . 

____________

Josh Neufeld (Twitter: @JoshDNeufeld) is an Associate Professor in Waterloo’s Department of Biology, studying the microbiology of terrestrial, aquatic, and host-associated environments. Josh teaches a large second-year introductory microbiology course as well as smaller upper year courses in biogeochemistry and microbial ecology.

Telephone keypad image courtesy of Raindog808. 

Oh SMARTBoard, where art thou? Part 2- Eric Van Halteren

Sherlock HolmesAs you may recall, I wrote an article on September 25 titled ‘Oh SMART Board, where art thou? Part 1’ In the article, I discussed my experience with SMART Boards and an elementary and middle school level, and wanted to determine how SMART Boards were used in a post-secondary setting. However, I was not able to find one before writing the first entry. In this entry, I will recount my quest to find a SMART Board.

Oh SMART Board, where art thou? This question has been on my mind for the last several months and has driven me to explore more of Waterloo campus than most curious first year students. I don’t consider myself a detective by any means, but as I searched high and low for SMART Boards I couldn’t help but visualize myself akin to Sherlock Holmes, deerstalker perched on my head and pipe in hand. The purpose of my search was simple: to understand how interactive boards can be used in a post-secondary setting. However, the rarity of SMART Boards on campus made this question quite the challenge to answer.

After writing my first blog entry, I was informed of and was able to locate two SMART Boards on campus. One was located in a basement classroom in the east wing of Renison University College (REN), and the other was located in a conference room in Engineering Building 5 (E5). I cannot begin to describe how jubilant I was when I finally laid eyes on these beautiful pieces of technological ingenuity. Both boards were a newer model than what I was accustomed to, with an upgraded projector layout and reduction in the number of physical devices needed to interact with the board. The board in REN was situated at the front of a medium sized classroom that could accommodate ~60 students, while the board in E5 was placed more in the corner of a conference room that could hold ~30 students. What interested me was the fact that, of the two SMART Boards I located, both were being used in very different settings.

Unfortunately, I was never able to sit in on a lecture or sneak into a conference where a SMART Board was being used. However, I was able to question various staff and faculty about their thoughts towards the boards. One professor in REN (whom I have since lost the name of) highlighted that the SMART Board software made it easy to interact with slides, make notes throughout a lecture, along with save and distribute these notes after class ended. She also mentioned that students enjoyed using the SMART Board for their presentations in class. I heard similar feedback from several staff members, who noted that the board made lectures more engaging for students. When I asked about the learning curve for the board software, the professor said the basics of the software for the board were relatively easy to pick up. However, she also admitted that she hasn’t been able to explore many of the software features of the board. I expected to hear this when talking with staff, recalling from my own experience that the learning curve was relatively easy, but also had a high ceiling.

So there you have it. I was able to locate two SMART Boards, and received some feedback regarding their use in a postsecondary setting. Some could say the mystery has been solved, the case abruptly closed. Yet, I argue the contrary. In all my searching, only two SMART Boards were uncovered; less than what most elementary and high schools have. If these boards have been deemed beneficial towards interactive teaching by school boards, as shown in some research, why are they passed off in a post-secondary setting? What makes a post-secondary setting so different that SMART Boards are deemed non-beneficial to student learning? I could see the argument of class size brought forward, but I would simply rebut with possible use for tutorial or labs. Others could argue that these boards are just entertainment tools, but I would rebut that with effective training these boards could be used highly effectively.

To end this blog post, I would like to pose a question that has been on my mind throughout this quest. If SMART Boards, or any interactive whiteboards for that matter, are deemed beneficial in high school, are we doing current and incoming post-secondary students a disservice by not including them as part of our educational pedagogy? I hope the University of Waterloo, an educational institute who prides itself on innovation, looks further into whether SMART Boards hold benefit for our classrooms of tomorrow. Until then, I will continue my search, trying to unravel this tangled mystery. Oh SMART Board, where art thou?

I would like to thank Kyle Scholz and Gordon Stubley for their tips on SMART Board locations.

References: Armstrong, V., Barnes, S., Sutherland, R., Curran, S., Mills, S., & Thompson, I. (2005). Collaborative research methodology for investigating teaching and learning: the use of interactive whiteboard technology. Educational Review, 57(4), 457-469.

Beeland, W.D. (2002). Student engagement, visual learning and technology: can interactive whiteboards help? Action Research Exchange, 1 (1). Retrieved from: http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/research/international_research/usa/beeland_am.pdf

Glover, D., Miller, D., Averis, D., & Door, V. (2007). The evolution of an effective pedagogy for teachers using the interactive whiteboard in mathematics and modern languages: An empirical analysis from the secondary sector. Learning, Media & Technology, 32(1), 5–20.

Crib Notes are Your Friends — Shannon Dea, Department of Philosophy

student writing testCan’t get your students to do the readings before class? If your course has exams, here’s a sure-fire method that will have them hitting the books and not only reading but reading strategically.

On the first meeting of the term, give each student a pack of 3X5 cards, one for each class meeting of the term. (Or have them buy their own, depending on your budget and the class size.) Explain to them that each class they will be permitted to turn in one card inscribed with their name, the date, and notes about the day’s reading. Further, they must hand the card in before class so that their notes are drawn entirely from their reading of the text, and not from the lecture or class activities. Further explain that you will return to each student their bundle of cards at the beginning of their midterm/final and that they may use their cards to help answer exam questions.

With this method, you are essentially letting the students write their own customized books for an open-book exam, but stipulating that the material for the book must be drawn from the course readings. It will take very little persuading for students to see the benefits of having a pack of customized notes at their elbow come exam time. What might take a little more effort is training students to make good choices about which parts of the readings they ought to record on their cards.

The great thing is, though, that you’ll be in a better position to support the development of their active reading skills because you’ll be able to go over their cards and see what they’re gleaning from each reading. Indeed, you may wish to start each class by quickly skimming a random selection of the cards for that class and discussing with students the highs and lows of their reportage.

I’ve used this method with a first-year class with about 80 students. The overwhelming majority of students submitted cards in each class, and most of them contained useful content about the readings. The fact that the students had all done the readings meant that lots of students participated in class discussions, and the quality of those discussions improved. Additionally, students become practiced at reading before class and at making reading notes. You as an instructor are better informed about how your students are doing with the readings, and can adapt your teaching in light of this.

And the downsides? Well, you’ll need to make time after each class to skim through the cards to make sure that students have actually written about that day’s reading (rather than sneakily revising their notes about the previous reading). The biggest challenge, though, is sorting all of the cards. I once foolishly left the sorting until the end of term and was forced to spend a back-aching day hunched over piles of cards arrayed on my office floor. Don’t do that.

Overall though, even if sorting the cards is a pain, it’s a small price to pay for starting each class with a room full of students who have done the readings and jotted down some initial notes about them. Now if only you could get them to bring you coffee…

Note: I’ll bet this method was somebody else’s idea. I talk teaching with lots of colleagues and we often trade ideas. Sometimes it’s hard to remember which ideas are mine and which are borrowed. I cannot for the life of me remember who came up with this brilliant method. If it was you, let me know and I’ll adapt this post so that you get credit for the idea. (And if it actually was me, yay me!)

Shannon Dea teaches in the Department of Philosophy, and is a Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Arts.

Image courtesy of ccarlstead.

New Tool for Making Screencast: MyBrainShark

Screencasts are an educational technology that have accelerated from zero to sixty in a relatively short time — in fact, over just the past few years. Screencasts have the potential, too, to radically change education. For one thing, they are the technology behind the pedagogical notion of “flipping” the classroom — that is, of providing content to students outside of class via screencasts, and reserving class time for more engaging activities that leverage application of knowledge, peer instruction, and collaboration. The word “flipping” almost sounds glib, but the pedagogical change it embodies is revolutionary: it threatens to upend what higher education has been for the past, oh, thousand years.

In my workshops on screencasts, I usually refer to Camtasia, Adobe Presenter, and Screencast-O-Matic as good tools for creating screencasts. Camtasia is a good choice at the University of Waterloo because we have a site license for it, so you can buy an inexpensive copy at The Chip. Screencast-O-Matic is a viable option for those who want to test the waters: its fully online (nothing to download) and free; it has limited editing capabilities, but it will give you a sense of what you might do with screencasts in your courses.

Just a few weeks ago, I also discovered another screencasting tool that I would recommend: MyBrainShark. This tool is perfect if you already have a PowerPoint presentation and want to record narration for it. It’s free, fully online, and dead simple to use. I also like the fact that links that are embedded into the PPT presentation remain “live” after the presentation has been converted into a MyBrainShark screencast.

You can see an example of a MyBrainShark screencast here (it’s a screencast about “glimpse concepts” and their relevance to smart phones).