Intended outcomes and outputs
Driven by the University’s priority to foreground students’ wellbeing in relation to their learning, and insights from our students and educational research projects, we have worked with key student support services across the University to synergise new and existing resources and expertise and co-develop these into a flexible student wellbeing learning programme. The aim of this will be to engage students with evidence-based learning and wellbeing strategies to consider their study approaches and scaffold students to recognise learning behaviours linked to improved wellbeing. The developed resources will be linked to existing staff training workshops so that staff can also use these to support their students.
Essentially, our intention is to move away from the deficit-based model (i.e. ‘something goes wrong which needs to be referred or fixed’) and acknowledge that simply knowing or being aware of something (e.g. work/life balance is an important part of university life) is not sufficient to change individual behaviour or institutional change. In other words, simply 'having knowledge’ does not equal long-term and sustainable change. We intend to promote a more proactive approach by creating a safe and transparent space for students to reflect, explore and discuss wellbeing-related issues and different study strategies. We want to empower students to take an evidenced approach to their study and incorporate a range of wellness activities into their own learning journey. It is our aim that this proactive approach will help mitigate the ‘stigma around mental health’. To realise this initiative, there are three key areas of focus:
Title
Collaborating with Student Support Services
Working in collaboration with student support services across the University (e.g., Education Office, Student Services, Library Services, Centre for Academic English, Imperial College Union) to map out and bring together various resources and expertise that support student study and wellbeing.
Fostering student collaboration
Working in partnership with students through the StudentShapers programme to identify gaps in current study support and wellbeing resources and develop evidence-based examples/resources, informed by student focus groups and professional conversations across the departments.
Developing a 'Learning Well' Programme
Where relevant, strengthening the scientific and psychological underpinning for the new and existing resources and expertise to develop into a flexible learning programme that can be used/adapted by academic departments to actively assist student learning, happiness and wellbeing.
The learning resources developed from the project are expected to be applicable across departments, faculties and year groups, given the breadth of views and learning trajectories of the STEMM students we have gathered across the university. Students’ active engagement in the creation of the resources will enhance the relevance and usefulness to the Imperial learning and teaching context, adding value to the support of student wellbeing. The features of authenticity of these resources strive to empower and inspire students to recognise their learning behaviours linked to improved wellbeing, which can contribute to their level of learning engagement and success.