For any higher education institution, one of the top priorities is ensuring that the right IT systems are in place to support academic and administrative operations. However, an increasingly critical area that demands attention is students' mental health and well-being. Transparent reporting on mental health is a key issue that universities must address to support students who need it effectively.
We must recognise that mental health issues among students are prevalent and can have severe consequences if left untreated.
50% of mental health problems are established by age 14, and 75% by age 24”
(Mental Health Foundation, 2017).
The COVID-19 pandemic only served to heighten these concerns. Left unsupported, mental health problems can quickly lead to academic underperformance, absenteeism, and ultimately leaving university. Addressing this problem requires an understanding of the scale and nature of the problem, which can be obtained through transparent reporting of mental health data.
Accurate reporting is necessary to identify trends and track changes in the prevalence and nature of mental health problems among students. IT leaders must recognise the critical role that IT systems can play in enabling transparent reporting. We must ensure that our IT systems can capture relevant mental health data, such as the number of students seeking mental health support, the types of services provided, and the timeframes of student engagement with these services.
Confidential data on students’ mental health must be stored in a centralised system and shared across all relevant departments to ensure that teams can access and analyse the data to identify trends and patterns, enabling appropriate steps to support students effectively.
So, the success of any program designed to support good mental health is using technology without adding to the noise and distractions that students already contend with. And the key to this is hyper-personalising the student experience, from the first interaction with the university (usually before application) to alumni. This requires HE-specific solutions designed to nurture student engagement:
Getting their attention - facilitating students’ interaction and engagement with the elements of your curriculum and extra-curricular activities they care about, deepening their sense of connection and increasing retention and success.
Keeping them on track - enabling teachers, tutors, students and learners to set goals and tasks and helping them see them through to completion by collaborating through persistent group timelines to post links, tips, hints and reminders.
Making communication easy - via a safe and secure social network so that staff, students and learners can communicate one-on-one or in groups, all in real-time. Unlike other messaging apps, sharing personal data to connect with others is unnecessary.
Helping them develop relationships - by offering students and learners a collaborative space to learn and support each other with in-class activities and self-learning.
Increasing feedback - engaging students and learners with near-immediate feedback to reassure them of their competence and better inform them ahead of their next lesson, lecture or appointment.
Connecting all parts of university life - providing deep integration between all available technologies to provide quick linking opportunities to wider campus systems.
For more information on our Student Support and Wellbeing solution and to see it in action, please head over to our website - Student Support and Wellbeing | Tribal (tribalgroup.com)
TOPICS:
