Abstract
Supporting student wellbeing is one of the ways to foster their learning. There are different units in CUHK (e.g. Office of Student Affairs (OSA) and college offices), the responsibilities of which are to promote student wellness. The staff of these units are well equipped with knowledge, skills and mindset in handling academic and non-academic problems students face. On the other hand, teachers who have more frequent and direct contact with students in or beyond the classroom may not be as well versed in handling students with emotional problems and other wellness issues. At the same time, there is research evidence suggesting that emotional support from teachers positively influences students’ learning and well-being.
In this regard, the project is proposed to promote teachers’ awareness and understanding of issues related to students’ emotional wellness through developing an online resources platform on student wellness issues in the hope that they will be better prepared when encountering such problems and provide students relevant support. The resources platform is meant to supplement the set of operational guidelines for teachers in handling student problems issued by OSA.
The online platform to be developed will house resources on emotional wellness problems young people usually encounter, e.g. anxiety disorder, mood disorder, negative self-image, adjustment to university, interpersonal relationship problems, etc. There will be two major types of resources.
a) eLearning modules: to introduce major wellness issues/ problems presented by CUHK students; and
b) Video-based cases: to demonstrate some handling strategies.
To ensure the content of the resources can meet the needs of teachers, interviews will be conducted to collect teachers' views about the need for such support. Professional advice will be sought from other parties, for example, OSA and academic departments.
When the online platform is launched, promotion work will be arranged. Further support could be considered to meet the needs of teachers, such as organizing workshops to be delivered by professionals.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
This project aims to develop resources for teachers who may encounter emotional wellness problems in students. It is to promote their awareness and understanding of students’ well-being issues.
Activities, process and outcomes
Experiences in encountering with student’ wellness issues and ways of coping were collected from six teachers in different faculties. Commonalities and major themes were identified to produce video clips and design the content on the online platform. Based on the collected experience, simulated cases were filmed as videos on four common emotional wellness issues (perfectionism, anxiety, academic stress, and depression). A teacher with expertise in counselling was invited to debrief these cases. A video presented by a teacher with professional training in suicidal prevention addressing the frequently asked questions by CUHK teachers on students’ suicidal issues was also produced. All resources were housed on Open edX via KEEP for all teaching staff of CUHK, with the course code as “CLEARSEW.”
Deliverables and evaluation
Major deliverables include: (1) video clips on four common emotional wellness issues, illustrating the issues students encountered and demonstrating some ways of coping in a teacher-student conversation; (2) video recordings by a teacher to debrief these cases; and (3) video recordings by a teacher, which answered questions on students’ suicidal issues. A section will be involved in this platform to collect viewers’ feedback on the relevancy and applicability of all these resources.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
This project was introduced to the audience in the Teaching and Learning Expo 2021, via online poster presentation and 3-minute video. All resources were housed on the project webpage on Open edX for all CUHK teaching staff.
Impact on teaching and learning
It is believed that this project will offer some resources supporting teachers in dealing with students’ emotional problems, particularly under current moment of COVID-19.
