Poster presented at EFYE 2018. Strengthening the wellbeing of students is an increasingly important approach of the development of students’ social, emotional and academic skills. Personal wellbeing motivates, among other things, students to learn and increases academic involvement and performance accordingly (Noble et al., 2008). According to the Centre for Education of Statistics and Evaluation (CESE, 2015) the educational welfare of students is also important for another reason; the recognition that teaching is not just about achieving academic performance, but also about the welfare of the student as a whole (intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral and spiritual). Recent studies indicate that more and more students suffer from (mental) health problems (LSvB 2013, 2017; Schaufeli et al., 2002). The aim of the Student Wellbeing Project at Inholland University of Applied Sciences is to 1) investigate the state of student wellbeing in Dutch higher education and investigate the factors that influence wellbeing, 2) explore and offer best practices to improve student wellbeing (curative and preventive) 3) establish a strong (international) partnership and collaborate to improve student wellbeing.
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The corona pandemic has forced higher education (HE) institutes to transition to online learning, with subsequent implications for student wellbeing. Aims: This study explored influences on student wellbeing throughout the first wave of the corona crisis in the Netherlands by testing serial mediation models of the relationships between perceived academic stress, depression, resilience, and HE support.
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Introduction Student success is positively linked to engagement, but negatively linked to emotional exhaustion. Though both constructs have been conceptualized as opposites previously, we hypothesize that students can demonstrate high or low engagement and emotional exhaustion simultaneously. We used quantitative and qualitative data to identify the existence of four student profiles based on engagement and exhaustion scores. Furthermore, we studied how profiles associate to study behaviour, wellbeing and academic achievement, and what risks, protective factors and support requirements students and teachers identify for these profiles. Methods The Student Wellbeing Monitor 2021, developed by Inholland University of Applied Sciences, was used to identify profiles using quadrant analyses based on high and low levels of engagement and emotional exhaustion (n= 1460). Correlation analyses assessed profile specific differences on study behaviours, academic delay, and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews with students and teachers are currently in progress to further explore the profiles, to identify early signals, and to inspect support requirements. Results The quadrant analysis revealed four profiles: low engagement and low exhaustion (energised-disengaged; 9%), high engagement and low exhaustion (energised-engaged; 15%), low engagement and high exhaustion (exhausted-disengaged; 48%), and high engagement and high exhaustion (exhausted-engaged; 29%). Overall, engaged students demonstrated more active study behaviours and more social connections and interactions with fellow students and teachers. The exhausted students scored higher on depressive symptoms and stress. The exhausted-engaged students reported the highest levels of performance pressure, while the energised-disengaged students had the lowest levels of performance pressure. So far, students and teachers recognise the profiles and have suggested several support recommendations for each profile. Discussion The results show that students can be engaged but at the same time are exhausting themselves. A person-oriented mixed-methods approach helps students and teachers gain awareness of the diversity and needs of students, and improve wellbeing and student success.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher education (HE) to shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT), subsequently influencing academic belonging and social integration, as well as challenging students' engagement with their studies. This study investigated influences on student engagement during ERT, based on student resilience. Serial mediation analyses were used to test the predictive effects between resilience, academic belonging, social integration, and engagement.
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This article describes the relation between mental health and academic performance during the start of college and how AI-enhanced chatbot interventions could prevent both study problems and mental health problems.
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Dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd binnen de onderzoekslijn Studentenwelzijn van het lectoraat Studiesucces. Onderzoek op het gebied van studentenwelzijn in Nederland is nog beperkt. Een van de doelen van de onderzoekslijn is daarom een bijdrage te leveren aan (praktijkgerichte) kennis over het welzijn van studenten. Dit onderzoek heeft als doel daar aan bij te dragen door 1) de stresservaring van studenten binnen Hogeschool Inholland te onderzoeken, 2) in kaart te brengen wat studenten helpt om met stress om te gaan, en 3) te onderzoeken wanneer studenten zich bevlogen voelen. Tevens is dit onderzoek een verkenning van de variabelen van het Student Wellbeing Model. De onderzoeksuitkomsten dienen aanknopingspunten te bieden voor vervolgonderzoek naar het welzijn van studenten in relatie tot studiesucces. Ten slotte, de inzichten die verkregen worden dienen uiteindelijk bij te dragen aan het tegengaan van een hoge mate van stress (en andere gerelateerde psychische klachten) bij studenten en aan het bevorderen van het welzijn van studenten.
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Introduction: The social distancing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have changed students’ learning environment and limited their social interactions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the social distancing restrictions on students’ social networks, wellbeing, and academic performance. Methods: We performed a questionnaire study in which 102 students participated before and 167 students during the pandemic. They completed an online questionnaire about how they formed their five peer social networks (study-related support, collaboration, friendship, share information, and learn-from) out-of-class. We performed social network analysis to compare the sizes, structures, and compositions of students’ five social networks before and during the pandemic, between first- and second-year students, and between international and domestic students. Additionally, we performed Kruskal–Wallis H test to compare students’ academic performance before and during the pandemic. We performed thematic analysis to answers for two open-end questions in the online questionnaire to explore what difficulties students encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and what support they needed. Results: The results showed that the size of students’ social networks during the pandemic was significantly smaller than before the pandemic. Besides, the formation of social networks differed between first- and second-year students, and between domestic and international students. However, academic performance did not decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we identified three key areas in which students experienced difficulties and needed support by thematic analysis: social connections and interactions, learning and studying, and physical and mental wellbeing. Conclusion: When institutions implement learning with social distancing, such as online learning, they need to consider changes in students’ social networks and provide appropriate support.
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Considering recent calls for change towards a more liveable tourism academia, critical participatory action research is combined with duoethnography to develop The Academic Line—a humorous comic project about academic life. Traditional theories of humour are used to leverage the effectiveness of comics as communicative devices and explored how and to what extent the project promoted solidarity, reflexivity, well-being, and change. This study reveals the concrete commitment to fostering change within and potentially improving academia, and to experiment with a form of communication, which is still underexplored in the scholarly sphere but fruitfully applied in other contexts to raise awareness of and prompt discussion about crucially important issues.
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De onderzoekslijn Studentenwelzijn is een nieuwe onderzoekslijn en is onderdeel van het lectoraat Studiesucces van Hogeschool Inholland. Deze onderzoeksagenda is bedoeld voor Hogeschool Inholland en haar (onderzoeks)partners. Met deze onderzoeksagenda worden de onderzoeksplannen van de onderzoekslijn gepresenteerd. In de agenda zal ingegaan worden op het belang van de onderzoekslijn naar studentenwelzijn, de thematische pijlers van de onderzoekslijn - Stress, Burnout, Veerkracht en Bevlogenheid - en de relatie van deze thema’s met studiesucces. Daarnaast worden de doelstellingen en onderzoeksvragen van de onderzoekslijn uiteengezet en wordt het onderzoeksmodel, het Student Wellbeing Model, beschreven. Tenslotte zal er een overzicht gegeven worden van de aankomende, lopende en afgeronde onderzoeken binnen de onderzoekslijn. De agenda zal periodiek bijgesteld worden.
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